Gundam Seed: Killer's Realm
by Knightmare Gundam of Ni
Summary: What would the Cosmic Era be like if the kind, positive, and idealistic Kira was instead a Killer who sheltered a cold and realistic worldview under his kind mask? Alternate Universe Fanfiction with new Mecha and some Original Characters. DEADFIC
1. Prologue

Gundam Seed: Killer's Realm

Prologue

- The Crucible -

**Endymion Lunar Base, Luna  
February 6, 64 CE  
2:39 PM GMT**

Rau Le Creuset moved swiftly, leading a team of fat, round ZAFT-Approved Mobile Suits (ZAMS) towards the moon. In the space surrounding, _Gamow_-class cruisers fought with the _Agamemnon_s_, Nelsons, _and _Drakes_ of the Earth Forces 'OMNI Enforcer' military. Beams lanced across kilometers of space, the battlefield where the wholesale slaughter of OMNI's Moebius-type mobile armors occurred.

While they were fast enough to avoid the majority of the Close-In Weapons Systems (CIWS) of the space warships of the past five decades, and heavily armored enough to endure the rest, the mobile armors were outclassed by the Mobile Suit. More agile, more heavily armed, and piloted by Coordinators, the suits could out-maneuver the armors and destroy them by the dozens. The ZAFT Original Networked Suits (ZONGS) were even worse, carrying enough firepower to gut a _Nelson's _entire Moebius contingent all on their own.

There were, however, exceptions. Like the squadron that was even now rapidly accelerating for Rau. A burst of _feeling_, something like the migraine version of an intuitive feeling of familiarity, signaled Rau.

"So we meet again..." the masked pilot mused, "…Mu La Flaga!"

- The Ace -

The squadron of Moebius Zeroes, the only one of its kind due to the nature of the mobile armor, approached the swarm of mobile suits, the small force supported by an orgy of reinforcing standard Moebius armors, making for a total of five mobile armors to every mobile suit.

Mu La Flaga, squadron leader took a deep breath to settle his nerves when a sensation filled his mind, one of troubling familiarity and _déjà vu_.

"Rau Le Creuset." He breathed. The two aces had encountered each other enough times over the course of the war for Mu to recognize that strange feeling of intuition that he had whenever coming across the strange masked man. He scanned the suits before him before his gaze locked onto Le Creuset's white-painted custom ZONGS.

"Alright, I have dibs on the white one!" Mu called to the rest of his squadron. A few tense, strained chuckles sounded back as the Moebius Zeros closed in on the team of ZAMS and one ZONGS.

The mobile armors closed with the ZAFT forces, the cylindrical attachments on the sides, ventral and dorsal surface of each somewhat dart-shaped Moebius Zero detached with sections folding open to allow two rather large autocannons to extend forth from each pod. Along with the larger railgun mounted right under the cockpit of the Zeros, this made for a rather impressive arsenal.

The hail of chemically-propelled depleted uranium armor penetrators and magnetically-accelerated nickel-iron-based projectiles flying towards the collective mobile suit teams were vast enough to completely destroy, or at least maim the majority of those in the immediate forward firing arcs of the Zero squadron, most ZAMS that survived doing so missing two or more limbs and with significant damage to their hulls.

The return fire was no less impressive. Several of the ZONGS had ion beam cannons for primarily anti-ship/fortification purposes, and the ZAMS were packing their high-caliber assault rifles. The Moebius Zeros had already withdrawn their gunbarrels within seconds of their initial barrage, using the maneuvering boosters attached to each one to scramble out of the way of the incoming assault. The standard Moebius fared far worse than their more advanced predecessors many of them blasted into so much space charcoal or ventilated by hails of gunfire.

As the comm flooded with cries, Mu gritted his teeth, locking onto the white-painted ZONGS.

- The Child -

**Endymion Lunar City, 108th Street, House 13**

A shrieking alarm woke up the nine-year old boy from his restful slumber, the brown-haired child rubbing his eyes as he sat up. A moment after that event, his door was practically blown off of its hinges by his parents.

"M-mom? Dad? What's happening?" Was all he managed to say before the two adults bundled him up in a coat, shoved his feet in his shoes sockless and rushed him out the door. He barely managed to snatch a small toy off of his dresser before they left.

"We have to leave sweetie….it's getting too dangerous here." His mother soothed the startled child, as the trio turned down the corridor.

Despite the availability of surface housing, the Yamatos had opted to leave in one of the sub-lunar apartments on the outskirts of the city, practically wall-to-wall with the Lunar Bases' own sub-lunar facilities. While little Kira had merely chalked it up as one of his parent's many eccentricities, Caridad and Haruto had chosen the place for the location of escape shuttle bays near it, both the civilian ones in the Lunar City and the military ones in the Lunar Base.

They were running towards one right now.

- The Last Man -

Colonel Joseph Abaddon was done with this dump. He'd done as asked, playing around with the morons assigned to Grimaldi, moving them here and there without much reason to simulate some kind of high activity and draw ZAFT in.

Now, it was time to get the hell out.

Abaddon and his retinue of transferees from previous commands, assorted bootlickers and token security officers were actually in the process of boarding the first escape shuttle when two people and a kid ran up, before being stopped by one of the MPs.

"Hold up, military personnel only. Civilian shuttles are that-a-way."

Joseph was heading into the airlock when he caught sight of the trio….specifically the kid. And his _purple_ eyes. Before the MP could finish his next statement, the Colonel intervened.

"Hey, we're actually kind of full here, but we can fit the kid in somewhere." The OMNI Enforcer officer said in a calm, soothing voice. "How about I let the kid on, and let you guys get on that shuttle next to us?"

The parents hesitated, when an explosion rocked the hanger.

"Take him!" The mother insisted, shoving her child towards the airlock.

- The Ace and the Crucible -

The Moebius Zero chased the white ZONGS around the battlespace, gunfire sparking back and forth between the two mobile weapons, each piloted by a veteran of the war. Their little skirmish drew them away from the frontline of the battle, the pair drifting farther and farther away in their slapdash maneuvers and feints.

"How nice to see you again, Mu La Flaga!" Le Creuset spouted, elegantly dodged his ZONGS around a railgun shot.

"Can't say the same about you Rau!" Mu shot back, literally, following up his missed shot with a barrage from the gunpod autocannons. The pair continued their duel, when the moonscape behind them apparently burst into flames.

"What in the-"Mu winced, screams echoing in his cockpit from the radio.

- The Killer -

Despite how much he wanted, the kid couldn't turn away... through both shuttle's windows, he saw his parents, in the other shuttle, ripped to shreds as their own blood evaporated. The child fell from his seat, sobbing as the last visible microwave rays dissipated, their destructive purpose fulfilled. In the seat across from his, an officer from OMNI Enforcer watched out of the corner of his eye. _That kid's a Coordinator...I'm sure of it now, _Colonel Joseph Abaddon thought. _If I could get him now...train him to hate other Coordinators and turn him into a pawn...I could get a big promotion._ This thought in his head, the commander of the now-defunct Endymion Lunar Base reached towards the young and promising Coordinator.

"Hey now kid, it's alright. You're not gonna end up like those poor saps..." This was, quite frankly the neutron that set off the reaction, as the kid rose up, ripping the idiot's gun from its holster and firing a round through his nasal cavity. This was all done in exactly one second, sixteen milliseconds and nine nanoseconds. Thus, even as the corpse was falling to the deck, the eleven-year old was already flying at the adjutant who had been seated next to Abaddon. At the four second mark, the blood had floated in globules past the back of the seat, and the kid had seized the adjutant's pistol and shot him in the temple.

By now, the OMNI soldiers in the shuttle were beginning to get past their shock and were reaching for their sidearms, their rifles and such left in the hasty evacuation. All for naught, as the kid fired both pistols again and again, tears flowing from his eyes as he did so. Carefully aimed, the bullets sped into their targets with remarkable accuracy, off by only a few millimeters.

Aside from the Coordinator child, every passenger in the shuttle was either a high-ranking OMNI officer or a guard, and had boarded the shuttle closest to their station. The only reason this kid had gotten in was due to his parents forcing him into it, the first shuttle set to leave.

Within thirty seconds, the only living, breathing macroscopic organism was the kid, holding two different pistols (He really went through the ammo, and it was too large a shuttle to get rid of everyone with ten-round clips). Chest heaving, tears still streaking down his cheeks, the child was sitting in his seat again, drops of blood floating in the zero-gravity. After another two seconds and twenty-six milliseconds, the tears ceased.

_The pilots don't know. Escape shuttles have sound-proof cockpits so that the pilots don't get distracted with the usual screaming and sobbing._ Rising, he made tiny motions, getting him out of the seat and floating towards the cockpit. Pausing at the threshold, he looked back. Cold, bright lavender eyes with dilated pupils surveying the scene. One body caught his eye, a slight head motion causing him to review. A single yellow band on the crisp white uniform declared the maybe-corpse as an ensign. Flicking through his memories, the killer child didn't remember shooting any ensigns, a remarkable fact. A slight kick off the door gave him enough motive energy to get halfway through the shuttle. Grabbing and pulling on a seat head gave him the rest. As he aimed the pistol for the shot, the "corpse" suddenly kicked off of the back wall, fouling up the shot. The bullet passed through the ensign's right ear, rendering it into a ragged strip of flesh as his hands encircled both pistol barrels.

"Coordinator scum!" The soldier screamed, wrenching both guns out of the kid's hands. All for naught, as a third pistol, stored in the boy's waistband came out, firing into the soldier's right kidney, then his left lung. Coughing and gurgling, the ensign curled up, pain incapacitating him. After a second, he looked up into the pistol's barrel. "Who – what the fucking hell are you? No kid, not even a Coordinator should be able to slaughter a whole shuttle." The youth merely stared at him, gun unwavering. Scowling, the soldier said "I hope to see you in hell, killer." At this, the kid's mouth broke into a half-grin, the left side of his face rising only slightly as the right side twisted maniacally. "What? What's so funny?"

"You guessed right." A shot rang out, sound stopped only by the boundary of the sound-proof door. Kicking off again, he arrived at his seat, where he checked to make sure his pet hadn't been harmed. The little green and yellow bird hopped out of its hiding spot under the seat, and cheeped out:

"Birdy?" Stroking the robotic bird briefly, the killer child vaulted himself over the head of the next seat, and entered the cockpit.

Two more gunshots sounded before the door closed.

- The Author -

Well, that's that. The first revised chapter of Killer's Realm.

Lately, looking over my previous work, I've been thinking about rewriting it, especially Killer's Realm since I think I screwed up a hell of a lot with the characterization. So, here we are.

Newcomers, I hope you enjoy this story, even as I both rewrite and add to it. Oldies, I hope you continue to read and review and enjoy the rewritten chapters.

Knightmare Gundam of Ni


	2. Phase 01: Killer's Augury

Gundam Seed: Killer's Realm

Phase 01: Killer's Augury

What's in a name? That which we call a rose / By any other name would smell as sweet. - William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet

Our names are labels, plainly printed on the bottled essence of our past behavior. - Logan Pearsall Smith

Cosmic Era. It began with the end of the Third World War, also called the Reconstruction War. It ravaged the nations of Earth, eroding national boundaries and creating new ones. Entire cities are annihilated overnight, and over a continent's worth of humanity are extinguished.

Over time, an accord is reached, and new nations rise out of the ashes. Construction focus turns from weapons and engines of war to space colonies and merchant ships. An expedition is made to Jupiter, led by the war hero George Glenn, a man of inhuman skill.

On the outset of his journey, Glenn broadcast a message to the entirety of Earth. It detailed exactly what he was. He was a Coordinator, a human genetically altered in the womb for greater capacity for physical and intellectual ability. The revelation sent the entirety of humanity abuzz. With this broadcast, Glenn had also transmitted the procedures to make other Coordinators. Within the year, parents were visiting doctors to have their children altered. Religious leaders met, unable to come to conclusions regarding their stance. An environmental group called Blue Cosmos declared against Coordinators and their supporters, and an international committee declared the creation of Coordinators illegal. When Glenn returned, though, he brought an alien fossil. Investigators declared it real, undermining the religious opposition to genetic modifications. With the opposition toppled, the creation of Coordinators was made legal, and their numbers increased exponentially.

Glenn created a new model of colonies, to be made at Lagrange 5. These PLANTS were made to be dependent on their sponsor nations, and were unable to produce food. This was against Glenn's expectations. In C.E. 50, the main leaders of the PLANTS, Siegel Clyne and Patrick Zala, created the Zodiac Alliance, working to lift the restrictions against the PLANTS. Glenn discovers this, and joins them. Three years later though, he was assassinated. Using him as a martyr, Zala pushes too fast, antagonizing the sponsor nations. When an outbreak of a mutant strain of influenza occurs on Earth, he is accused of having engineered it. Then it is discovered that he was pushing the production of a new weapon, called a mobile suit, to counter the mobile armors used by the terrestrial nations.

Tempers are inflamed, and numerous skirmishes break out. The Atlantic Federation, former geographic United States and United Kingdom, announces the creation of an Earth Alliance with the Eurasian Federation, forcing the United States of South America to join. The EA's military, the Oppose Militancy and Neutralize Invasion Enforcer (OMNI Enforcer) sends a fleet to pacify the PLANTS in C.E. 59. The PLANTS newly made armed forces, the Zodiac Alliance of Freedom Treaty (ZAFT) responds with its own fleet of advanced battleships, and new weapon, the ZAFT Approved Mobile Suit (ZAMS). They decimate the fleet, the ZAMS and their Coordinator pilots outmaneuvering the mobile armors at every turn. Stubborn, the Earth Alliance sends its new type of capital ships, the _Berial_-class Mobile Fortresses. The war escalates, with major battles occurring around the position of each _Berial_, taking ZAFT five years to fight past the stubborn battle groups that fought alongside the behemoths.

However, even the brute force of the _Berial_s couldn't halt the advance of ZAFT, especially when the ZONGS (ZAFT Original Networked General-purpose Suit) was introduced to its elite forces, the ZAFT Reds. The combined fleets of ZAFT finally broke through the line of five _Berial_s on February 5, C.E. 64, claiming portions of the Moon as its own.

When ZAFT assaults the terrestrial-aligned lunar bases, OMNI sacrifices thousands of its own soldiers with a microwave self-destruct system to decimate the ZAFT fleets. Then OMNI initiates a suicide attack on the PLANTS with nuclear weapons, succeeding in destroying the farming colony Junius Seven on February 14, 64 C.E., the 'Bloody Valentine'. With the population enraged by this sudden and devastating assault, the enlistment rate in the PLANTS climb, the Coordinator-dominated colonies advancing quickly, improving the designs of the ZAMS and ZONGS, creating new battleships, and developing ever-changing strategies.

On April 1, C.E. 65, ZAFT fights its way past OMNI's orbiting defense stations, dropping new weapons onto the Earth. The weapons, Neutron Jammers, bury themselves deep into the Earth's crust, and began ceasing any nuclear fission reactions on Earth and in Earth Orbit. The PLANTS remain mostly unaffected, their photovoltaic energy collectors supplying far more than enough energy. On Earth, however, chaos reigns. ZAFT uses this to create a foothold on Earth, capturing swathes of land. With the majority of the Earth Alliance's defensive emplacements knocked out, ZAFT focuses on enhancing the defenses of its bases on Earth, as well as that of its PLANTS. Over the years, numerous battles rage as each side goads the other into developing more advanced weapons, recruiting more soldiers. Unknown to them, they had already created perhaps the deadliest weapon imaginable.

– The Killer and The Madman –

**Lagrange 3, Heliopolis Colony, Technical College Campus. **  
**January 25, 71 C.E **  
**3:47 P.M. Orb Time**

"KIRA!" The shout sounded right next to his ear, causing the teenager to jump up, before falling, almost flat on his face. Thankfully, his reflexes brought his hands up in time to stop the weight of his head from smashing his nose flat into the concrete. Looking up, Kira saw Tolle Koenig and Miriallia Haw, two of his classmates. Tolle was just about the same height as Kira, had blue eyes and brown, messy hair that looked like a malformed bush. He wore blue sneakers, grey-blue pants, a blue undershirt and a white-ish overshirt. Miriallia, on the other hand, was a few centimeters shorter than Tolle, had light brown hair with the back sticking out towards the sides, and sea-green eyes. She wore an orange dress colored white around the bodice, with wrist length sleeves and bare shoulders, and brown shoes with white knee-socks. Kira himself was dressed in a dark blue shirt and light blue jeans and brown shoes.

"What's with the rude awakening?" the programming student groaned. Getting up, he saw a bird in the sky, wings flapping as it flew high above his head. A second later, the avian dove down towards him, before flaring its wings, flapping a few times as it landed on his shoulder. Smiling slightly, Kira stroked the green and yellow 'Birdy', the robot impressively simulating a real bird.

"The professor wants you to go over the OS again." Miriallia replied, grinning as Kira groaned.

"I've gone over it a dozen times! What does he want me to do?"

"I heard Sai talking about some problems with the pseudo-nervous system links and the polymer electric charge controller." Tolle supplied. "Also, I think some idiot rewrote the AMBAC System, and a bug's been causing the simulator to crash."

Even as they spoke, all three knew it was just an act. Kira, quite simply, wouldn't refuse. At heart, despite his classic complaining teenager mask, he was a push-over. Well, as far as they knew. He had shown up a year previous to enroll, with nothing but a suitcase of clothing, a backpack, and that strange bird robot. After showing his qualifications, the college faculty had tripped over each other getting him in. Within weeks of his arrival, Kira had acquired a reputation as the best programmer on the colony. Heck, maybe in the entirety of Earth and Earth Orbit.

"Alright, I might as well look at it again." Turning to the laptop he'd been working on, Kira quickly activated its security protocols, locked it down tight, and picked it up. "You coming Jack?"

The teenager that had been resting fitfully across from the picnic table Kira had been sitting at lazily opened one eye, before yawning and stretching out his limbs. His pitch-black hair was a mess, almost like he'd just gotten out of bed sleeping on his face, and he had tanned skin, as though he spent most of his time in a the sun. When he opened his eyes, they were revealed to be jet-black with hints of silver-grey. He was dressed in a camouflage T-shirt with a black jacket over it, along with black jeans and boots. Across the T-shirt's chest was written in bright white letters: _Shhhh. I'm hiding from the voices_.

"I'm coming, I'm coming. Sheesh, don't get your panties in a twist." Kira frowned at Jack's reply. Despite his age and seeming immaturity, Jack Kagizaki was one of the most intelligent people Kira knew. Majoring in robotics, Jack had immediately drawn up plausible designs of the ZAMS and ZONG mobile suits ZAFT used so far, commenting on their weaknesses and strengths. He'd also scathingly derided the Earth Alliance's current mobile armors, pointing out their glaring flaws as well as easy and cheap ways to minimize or eliminate them.

Jack was also one of the few people who actually knew who Kira was.

"Five years, five years of me helping you and you can't even let me rest for….five hours." the designer complained, waving his hands around in general gestures of incredulity. "How many times have I pulled your hind end out of the figurative – and in some cases, literal – fire? Huh?" Kira expertly tuned out Jack, rushing after Tolle and Miriallia, knowing that Jack would follow him, muttering all the way.

- The Gang -

Sai and Kuzzey looked up as Tolle and Miriallia came through the door. Grinning, they stepped to the side as Kira came through, Jack on his heels, looking a bit sheepish.

"Sorry for being late." He said, setting his laptop down on a desk as Birdy hopped down. He took a step towards his terminal, and then noticed the person standing next to the door. Said individual was dressed rather inconspicuously with dark blue hat and jacket and tan pants. Curious, Kira bent down a little and peered under the hat. What he saw practically made his heart stop. _Cagalli? _His twin sister looked a bit sheepishly at him, shifting uncomfortably as she pretended not to know him. Glaring, Kira withdrew, assuming a confused mask as he continued to his computer. Before going to his own terminal, Jack inconspicuously leaned close to put his ear near Kira's mouth. "It's Cagalli," Kira hissed. His own face paler now, Jack rushed to the computer assigned to him. _If Cagalli's here…there can't be anything good happening back at Orb…_ Both Jack and Kira eyed Cagalli nervously, watching as she tried a door.

– The Redcoats –

**Heliopolis Colony, Outer Hull**

The team of infiltrators moved slowly towards the entrance, small puffs of air from their propulsion packs (Jet-pack is so 1950s) maneuvering them just so. As their feet touched the metal hull, their leader, one of six red-suited soldiers, knelt next to the hatch. Opening the access panel, he punched in a series of numbers given to him by the commander, opening the hatch. Within was a long corridor, seemingly empty. To the visor-altered view of the intruders though, it was filled with infrared lasers, probably attached to numerous security systems and maybe even traps.

The apparent leader started through the hallway first, timing his entrance perfectly. At once, all the lasers switched off. Shaking his head, Athrun propelled himself down the hallway, Yzak, Dearka, Nicol, Rusty, and the rest following. Commander Le Creuset was scary. The team moved through the hallway, splitting up at designated points, fanning over the system. Surprisingly, this network of hallways also doubled as the colony's air conditioning system, and by following a blueprint, each of the groups was able to find their targets.

They worked quickly, the Reds and a few Greens grouping near the upper hanger, with the rest placing charges in the lower hanger and the power facilities. Athrun signaled to Yzak, motioning. Yzak, Dearka and Nicol would take the three outside, while Athrun, Rusty and Eric would take the three inside the hanger. With one final signal, they moved out.

- The Captain -

**Morgenroete Facility**

Lieutenant Murrue Ramius could have, if she were inclined to, railed at the technicians for the slow pace. However, it really wasn't their fault it was taking so long to get the G Units moving. For some reason, there had been various difficulties with the transport equipment. Something with the control programs…..or so they told her.

"Bill, hurry up! We need to get the G-Units out of here!" She shouted.

"Ugh. What's the rush? It's not like ZAFT knows we're h-" Billy was interrupted by a loud explosion. Startled, he fell off the crane he was fixing, as the hanger began to shake.

- The Ace -

**Heliopolis, Surrounding Space**

"Damn!" Lieutenant Mu La Flaga swore, moving his Moebius Zero through a hail of bullets. The ZONGS almost seemed to shrug at its aim, before targeting one of the Mistral mobile pods trailing in Mu's wake. Before the youngster could scream, the hail of 76mm rounds annihilated the mobile armor, leaving freezing gases and shredded metal. One of the ZAMS targeted Mu and fired, barely missing him as he turned the Moebius aside in a Split-S. Still swearing, he pivoted the mobile armor about and launched the gun pods, his spatial awareness helping immensely in coordinating them. The coordinated fire ripped off the ZAMS limbs, with the Zero's central cannon taking its head. Firing a second volley, Mu destroyed the ZAMS' cockpit before moving to avoid the approaching horde of 76mm armor-piercing bullets. The ZONGS actually seemed to be a bit perturbed now. At least, as perturbed as a Cyclops made of titanium and steel could.

To the side, another Mistral charged one of the two remaining ZAMS, its pilot screaming out:

"Die, you Fat Muther!" The rotund mobile suit moved fluidly out of the Mistrals attack path, avoiding the 25mm bullets with a combination of thrusters and that AMBAC system. As the Mistral passed, the ZAMS fired its machine gun, rending the mobile armor apart.

"Damn!" Mu snarled, dodging another burst from the ZONGS, who seemed quite annoyed.

Then, for no apparent reason, the ZONGS and the ZAMS moved to the hull door, back to the wall. Mu raised an eyebrow at this. What were they doing? Sure, those mobile suits were more agile, and could easily dodge the mobile armor's shots, but even if the Mistrals and the Moebius Zero missed, it wouldn't do anything to the colony. The thing was armored against micro-meteorites, which were slightly bigger than most bullets and traveled just as fast sometimes.

To his disbelief, the doors opened, allowing the three ZAMS and the ZONGS to move through.

- The Mad Scientist -

**Morgenroete Facility**

Liene hissed as the explosion sent shards of white hot metal flying across his left arm, cutting the flesh and cauterizing it at the same time. Despite the pain, the engineer rushed away from the hanger's door, taking cover behind one of the G Unit transporters.

"Liene!" He turned his head and saw Lieutenant Ramius from OMNI. "Are you alright?"

"Well, the cuts aren't bleeding, at least." Liene replied lightly. Wincing as he moved his arm, he looked around, and spotted a flash of green out of his eye. "ZAFT!" He warned, pointing at the soldier extricating himself from the air vent. Ramius turned and shot the soldier, the three-round burst from her SMG ringing out among the hanger.

Outside, there was a virtual earthquake as a ZONGS landed on a truck, shadowing the G Unit the vehicle had been guarding. Then the mobile suit leaned back, avoiding rockets from a car further in the front. Turning, it refrained from using its' machine gun, instead peppering the rocket launcher with its foot-based anti-infantry guns. The bullets penetrated, setting off the armed rockets and enveloping the vehicle in flames.

The ZAMS that landed next had no such compunctions, or merely made do with what they had, annihilating most of the vehicle escort with short bursts. One ZAMS had the arrogance to kick a vehicle, sending it crashing into the side of one of the transporters. The ZONGS stared at the offending mobile suit for a second before shooting another truck.

"Damn...how did ZAFT find out about this facility?" Liene hissed through his teeth, clutching his pistol. "Lieutenant Ramius, take the Augury. I'll get the Kiba out of here." The OMNI officer started, staring at the engineer.

"Are you sure? We haven't finished the OS in either one." Liene grunted.

"If memory serves, we completed the Augury's motion-based systems, including the AMBAC. As for the Kiba...I'll have to make due." As sounds of gunfire echoed throughout the facility, Ramius nodded, dashing off to the Augury.

Heading for the Kiba, Liene swore as the three G Units on the outside rose, CIWS occasionally firing at the defenders. ZAFT had them now. And it figures that they'd finish the Operating Systems themselves, already having experience with their own mobile suits. As he clambered up the transporter's ladder, he spotted two teenagers on the upper level. Frowning, he peered up at them. _They look familiar...almost like...no, it can't be..._

- The Killer -

**Technical College**  
**Five minutes ago**

Kira and Jack had responded instantly to the shaking that they knew were explosions. Looking at each other, they nodded.

"What was that?" Sai, nervous. "Were those explosions?" Not wanting to find out, the others began heading for the door, and the shelters beyond. Watching Cagalli, Kira and Jack followed them, heading out into the hallway. When Cagalli ran off, they both cursed silently. Looking towards Sai, Kira yelled.

"Jack and I will get her! You guys go ahead!" Ignoring their protests, the two Coordinators rushed down the hallway, each silently promising themselves they'd get a good explanation from the Princess of Orb.

A good minute later, they finally caught up to Cagalli, who was looking out over a large hanger. Down below, they saw three mobile suits, all in an nondescript gray color scheme.

"Damn it...OMNI"s new mobile weapon...Father, you traitor!" She cried, slumping down. Kira and Jack exchanged looks, a mix of amused and stupefied.

"Come on Cagalli, let's get you to a shelter." Kira said, grabbing her hand and dragging her up. She snatched her hand away, looking angrily at Kira.

"What's your part in this? Did Father get you to help with this, Kira, Jack?" Both boys shook their heads, trying not to smile.

"We're here because we got into OMNI's files...and found this project." Jack began. "But, that's a story for another time!" Kira grabbed one hand while Jack gripped the other, both overpowering her and dragging her to the nearest shelter. Kira jabbed at the intercom, opening a channel to the occupants.

"Can you guys take my friend?" he yelled over the din, the chatter of rifles continuing.

"...Sure, but that's all the room we have though!" A man's voice replied, sounding tense.

"That'll be alright. I'll find another shelter." Both boys then shoved Cagalli in the entrance, Jack waving idly as she raged in the elevator-like tube.

"Well, now that we've dealt with her, what'll we do about the Gundams?" Jack asked.

"Well...We could steal them...but what if we managed to get the crew to defect?" Kira said, sounding a little hopeful. Jack just stared. "What? I've looked over the crew manifest. If ZAFT managed to take out the higher officers, like we think they did, then the rest are just normal people. Most of OMNI's command structure consists of Blue Cosmos affiliates over the more sensible people." Kira defended himself, against Jack's accusing stare. After a moment Jack relented.

"I suppose it could be possible...hey, isn't that Liene?" The ebon-haired teen pointed at the figure climbing the ladder of the mobile suit in the middle.

"I wouldn't be surprised if it was. You know him, always concerned about his projects..." Kira said, heading off towards the unit in the back. "You take the Kiba, I'll get the Augury."

"Bu- Wha- You-" Jack stuttered, staring after his friend. "You know how L get along..." he finally muttered, before jumping over the railing.

Kira raced along the walkway, moving to a position directly over the Augury. _Thank goodness for all those exercises. _He thought, moving swiftly in the lower gravity. Across from the Gundam's crotch, he saw two ZAFT Reds firing at the woman and man crouched on the mobile suit's torso and leg. One Red fell, at the same time as the man did. Kira saw both soldiers yell out at their comrades, although even his Coordinator hearing couldn't make out the words over the sound of mobile suit machine guns and infantry assault rifles.

Running, he leaped over the railing, landing gracefully on the Gundam. The woman behind him fell back, startled as the Red raised his rifle to fire. As Kira braced himself, the Red looked over his weapon before throwing it aside, drawing a long combat knife instead.

Grim, Kira reached back for the balisong knife he kept in his belt sheath. As the Red drew close, the visor angled so that the light no longer reflected of it, and he saw the Red's face._ Athrun?_ In the helmet, Kira saw Athrun mouth his name, before bullets ricocheted off the Gundam's armor. Athrun threw up his arms, using his pack to jump backwards. Looking, Kira saw his old friend jump onto the forward-most Gundam, briefly glancing at Kira before entering the cockpit. Kira struggled a bit between desire and self-imposed duty, when the woman called out to him.

"Hey, you!" Turning, Kira looked up at the OMNI soldier. She seemed to be injured, holding her hand to her arm. He moved quickly over to her, mentally beating down his desire.

"Here, get in." Obeying, Kira hopped down into the cockpit after her, moving behind the command seat. His eyes moved quickly over the controls, memorizing every button, switch, the stick, the throttle, and the screens. He watched as the officer grabbed the controls, moving them carefully, as though she held grenades in her hands without the pin, but with the arming lever intact.

Outside, the remaining ZAFT Greens watched as the 18-meter mobile suit stood, moving slowly and cautiously. The other one, in the middle had already chased after the one Athrun had taken, sprinting after it like a wolf on the hunt. The Augury plodded out the hanger door, it's unskilled pilot handling it tenderly. Kira had to reign in his impatience, knowing that he could move this unit faster than this.

Outside, they saw a silver Gundam facing off against three ZAMS, the ZONGS and the red Gundam stolen by Athrun. As they watched, the red one fired its thrusters, moving towards the outer hull door. The ZONGS faced them, drawing a long blade. As the mobile suit charged, the OMNI officer drew the Augury's arms above its head, crossing them as she pressed a large button. The Gundam flared into color, its gray tones replaced by white, blue and gold. The blade clashed with the limbs, sparks flying as the ZONGS pilot tried to force the blade through them.

Apparently frustrated, the ZONGS moved back, and started in again with the sword, slicing at the torso. The soldier fired the head-mounted CIWS, but the rounds missed what, by all means, should have been an easy target, digging into the concrete. _This unit's weapons haven't been calibrated yet?_ Kira thought disappointedly. The next slice sent the Augury tumbling back, crashing into a building. As he recovered from the impact, Kira's eyes fell on one of the secondary monitors. It showed Sai, Tolle, Miriallia and Kuzzey running, Tolle pulling Miriallia behind him. The woman moved the Augury back up, facing the ZONGS, which was preparing to stab the G Unit. The OMNI engineer moved the mobile suit back a step, far too close to the teenagers for Kira's liking. His conscience, always the dominant part of him, had him gripping the throttle and firing the thrusters, charging the ZONGS. It fell back, and as its pilot attempted to rise, Kira pushed the soldier aside, seating himself in the chair. Pulling out the keyboard, he began typing in the changes he had long since been planning, restructuring the Operating System to his liking as the engineer looked over his shoulder.

"How can you pilot this with this OS?" Kira muttered, hands moving swiftly over the keyboards.

"Don't blame me...we weren't able to finish it..." The woman trailed off, quite obviously astonished at the scene unfolding in the cockpit. As he looked over the System, Kira saw more and more tell-tales, affirming his suspicions. _This is definitely Liene's handiwork...Orb, or at least someone with a lot of power helped the Alliance in this..._Once he finished, he reset the keyboard, taking hold of the main controls as the ZONGS righted itself. The ZAFT unit took a swipe at him, blade whistling towards the Augury's head. Ducking, Kira moved the Gundam's hand down, and up, in an uppercut that slammed the ZONGS to its full height. As its pilot shook off the shock, the mobile suit sheathed the sword, instead drawing its machine gun.

As the weapon fired, Kira moved the Augury to the side, before jumping it up with the thrusters and landing next to the ZONGS. Acting quickly, he drew two of the Augury's four weapons, a Beam Pistol for the left hand and a Beam Saber in a reverse-grip in the right. He shot the ZONGS through its thigh with the pistol; blasting actuators into so much melted scrap, and sliced its head off with the Saber. Kira followed up by slicing the left arm off and shooting the right shoulder, effectively disabling most of the ZONGS' main weapons. Out of one monitor, Kira saw a green-suited figure jumping out from the ZONGS back, and had an instant to figure out what would happen next. Moving the Augury back, he shielded the torso with its arms, just in time for the ZONGS battery to intentionally overload, initiating a self-destruct sequence that caused an explosion equivalent to a car bomb.

- The Madman -

In the Kiba, Jack grinned as he saw Kira fight the ZONGS down. Then he glanced worriedly at the unconscious Liene behind the pilot seat. _He's not going to be happy when he wakes up_. Jack had knocked the engineer out when he'd climbed into the Gundam, right before uploading the updated OS Kira had prepared. Still somewhat worried, Jack turned his attention back to the ZAMS, which had mostly been eyeing the Augury, inching ever-so-slowly away from it. Shrugging, Jack closed his eyes. Chimamare opened them.

Jack's crazed alter grinned madly, flexing his fingers before gripping the Kiba's controls tightly.

Then, he started killing.

The Kiba's right hand darted into the object attached to its hip, a long gauntlet-like weapon with fingers tipped by two-meter claws. The gauntlet detached, coming up and around as the Kiba moved for the center ZAMS. The mobile suits Cyclops eye moved to regard the Gundam for an instant before the claws took its head. Chimamare chuckled as he kicked the Kiba's feet at the ZAMS', knocking the bulky, rotund mobile suit over. Turning slightly, he regarded the ZAMS on the left, which had raised its' rifle at the Gundam. The claws flashed, slicing the weapon into five equal-sized pieces before scratching across the torso armor, leaving relatively shallow rents, and allowing Chimamare to see the terrified pilot. The alters' grin widened, his bloodlust rising. He wanted to stab the claws deep into the mobile suit, piercing the pilot through and seeing the life seep out of his eyes...but no. That would work against the plan Jack and Kira had made, and despite his berserker bloodlust, Chimamare was ruthless, and stuck to the plan. So instead, he sliced the knees of the ZAMS off, turning to finish with the last ZAFT unit. The ZAMS fired, a long burst that impacted against the Kiba's Phase Shift Armor, rattling the pilot and passenger inside. As its' machine gun stuttered, ammo spent, the ZAMS slowly backed away. Chimamare chuckled again, and the Kiba's yellow optics glinted as the gauntlet was raised for one last strike. The blow fell, raking diagonally across the ZAMS, from right shoulder to left hip, cut expertly calculated to come within inches of the pilot's nose. When he saw the pilot, Chimamare just shrugged. It wasn't his fault the man had a long nose. Closing his eyes, he 'went to sleep' as Jack reaffirmed his control, shaking his head at the devastation his alter caused. The ZAFT pilots all followed their leader, setting the self-destruct before fleeing for the outer hull door.

Jack moved the Kiba towards the Augury, kneeling the silver Gundam next to the White Gundam, deactivating the armor and opening the cockpit hatch. Stepping out, he saw the Augury do the same, with Kira and the OMNI officer stepping out, although the officer had her pistol on the Coordinator.

- The Author -

You know, I was hoping to actually get farther than this, but I'm still working on the ship...and before anyone asks, yes almost _every single mobile suit_ has been replaced. So far, between me and a few others, (cough* Velshard* Cough) we've managed to replace the entirety of the First Tier Gundams (The original G Units) pretty much all of ZAFT, the Second Tier Gundams (Freedom, Justice) and are working on the Orb mobile suits.

The ZAMS was made by one Velshard, most detailed mecha designer I know so far. (He made an entire Gundam on a whim while I was writing my first story)

The ZONGS was designed by Animefan29 (although I made a few changes to fit it in)

The Augury, Kiba, Aegis replacement and Duel replacement are designed by yours truly, with Velshard tucking the Buster and Blitz replacements under his belt.

Jack is an Original Character created by throwing a minuscule amount of my own personality with bits of Hallelujah, Ali Al Saachez and Michael Trinity from Gundam 00 and Lelouch Lamperouge and Suzaku Kururugi from Code Geass

Liene is one of Velshard's OC's, and as fleshed out as any of his mobile suit designs (You'll see when I post the tech chapter)

I think I'll post the tech chapter after the next chapter, for those of you curious as to the exact details on these mecha.

For those of you dirty-minded, I do not mean _that_ kind of desire when Kira is meeting Murrue Ramius. Read the prologue again, and I'm sure you'll understand.

Oh, and updates are going to be rather sporadic, what with school, homework and even sleep getting in the way of my writing.

Knightmare Gundam of Ni

(Revised 3/1/11)


	3. Phase 02: Subterfuge

Gundam Seed: Killer's Realm

Phase 02: Subterfuge

**Lagrange 3, Heliopolis Colony, Morgenroete Residential Area**  
**January 25, 71 C.E **  
**4:02 P.M. Orb Time**

- The Killer -

Kira had to resist the urge to – brutally – disarm the Lieutenant. Sticking to the overall plan was objectively obvious. Subjectively, however, Kira was finding it hard to not draw the balisong and slit her throat.

It didn't help that Jack was grinning at him from the Kiba, his eyes shouting 'I told you so!' And then the situation got even more complicated.

"Hey! What are you doing with Kira!" The shout came from beyond the Kiba, and looking, Kira could see Tolle, Miriallia and Sai running around the shattered, melted wreckage of the ZONGS, each looking rather indignant. Kira felt more than heard the Lieutenant shift her aim from his back to Tolle's head, and his muscles tensed automatically, readying him to spring back and snap her neck. Instead, he forced himself to relax. A second later, he was gratified to hear the OMNI officer start talking instead of shooting. He'd read her right.

"These Mobile Suits are Earth Alliance property." She stated, somewhat nervously. _Wrong._ Kira silently thought. "Because you saw them, I cannot allow you to go freely until validated by an officer overseeing the project." In the corner of his eye, Kira could see Jack grinning slightly

"Excuse me," Kira began, "but could you tell us who you are?" The Lieutenant paused for a second before answering.

"Lieutenant Murrue Ramius, OMNI Enforcer, 8th Orbital Fleet." Kira relaxed even more at this. She was one of the sensible ones. Ramius stepped back to the Augury's cockpit, looking around and checking something. "What did you do?"

"I wrote some code to allow for the gaps in the Operating System, and overwrote some of the lines controlling the electroactive polymers for better efficiency." Kira replied.

"I don't even recognize this! How did you do this?" Murrue went on, before stopping herself and just staring in astonishment. "Never mind. I can't pilot it like this, so I guess you'll have to."

- The Madman -

_Score: Orb 1, OMNI none._ Jack thought triumphantly. As Kira climbed into the cockpit, Jack heard a groan from inside the Kiba, loud enough even for Ramius to hear it. _Shit._ Turning, he saw Liene climbing around the command seat, fire in his eyes. Stopping for a second, Liene's expression shifted to a smirk that wouldn't have looked out of place on a lion on the savanna that had cornered a mouse. _Fuck. He's got me and he knows it. Probably just relishing the irony._

"Who's in there?" _Damn her._ "Liene? Are you okay?" The engineer spared a glance towards Jack before replying.

"Yes Lieutenant, I'm fine." Jack was practically sweating. One of Liene's favorite jokes was "Some people are like slinkies: Not really good for anything, but you can't help but smile when you see one tumble down the stairs..." And in Liene's eyes, Jack was definitely the slinky. Jack stared at Liene, memorizing every detail, from the white-streaked black hair, the mismatched gray and pale blue eyes, to the fairly pale skin. If Liene got him killed, Jack would wait in hell until the end of Liene's natural lifespan, and pounce on the man when he arrived.

Funny thing was, Liene would probably laugh at that.

"I guess I should thank you. If you hadn't programmed the Kiba, we probably would have been killed." Jack continued staring, albeit for a different reason. Murrue turned to Jack, suspicious.

"You _also_ reprogrammed a G-Unit?"

"He and I attend the same class." Jack said truthfully, jabbing a thumb over his shoulder at the Augury. That didn't dispel the glare. Behind the Lieutenant, Liene was motioning in Orb Sign Language, punctuating with unrelated insulting gestures every so often. _'So the essential point is, he thinks you're a bastardizing asshole, and wants to meet you and Kira later?'_ Chimamare interjected. Jack was just dying to respond in like, but the continuing presence of the OMNI Officer delayed that. Ramius threw up her arms in exasperation, a bemused, annoyed look on her face.

"Well, nothing to do about it. I guess you'll pilot the Kiba then." There was a little mocking cheer in Jack's head as he bowed.

- The Crucible -

**Heliopolis, Surrounding Space**

_A ZONGS and Three ZAMS? These units are more dangerous than I thought_. Rau Le Creuset drifted down the hallway, floating in the low gravity. Opening the door at the end, he entered the hanger. Before him was the red unit Athrun had stolen, a little taller than the ZONGS, and towering over the ZAMS. It drew even with the SCAU, just as dominating as that infamous mobile suit, although for different reasons. The G Unit, or Gundam, as everyone was calling it now, for some strange reason, was colored primarily red, although orange and gold highlights outlined its eyes and decorated parts of its limbs, giving an impression of a blazing fire. Of course, that was when Athrun had first walked it into the hanger, to the awe of most of the mechanics. Now, it was a collection of subdued shades of gray.

"Sir." Turning, Rau saw Athrun at attention, saluting.

"You've heard then?" the commander wasn't surprised. News travels fast on a ship, especially one in space.

"Yes. Miguel, John, Bois, and Hans were all defeated by the Augury and Kiba." Athrun replied, relaxing.

"Indeed. I'll be going back in, to finish those two." Rau said, turning to face his SCAU. It was colored in his cool, calm scheme of silver on white, enhancing the seeming glare of the dual monoeye systems in its head. Athrun nodded, keeping silent about the one issue that plagued his mind.

- The Ace -

Mu swore as he spotted the new contact. With the Mistrals devastated, and him running low on rounds, and some of the more minor damage from the fight mounting up, there was no certainty of him winning this fight. He swore again, louder, as a familiar sensation crossed his mind, driving the tension up a notch. _Rau Le Creuset!_ At that moment, a channel opened.

"Is that you Mu La Flaga? What a surprise to find you here!" The two forces, OMNI and ZAFT, Mobile Armor and Mobile Suit, clashed, the SCAU's stuttering flash of its shield-based 80mm machine cannon contrasting with the bright and sudden sparks of the Zero's linear cannon barrage. The SCAU dashed forward, foot crashing into a gun pod and crushing it, as Rau dashed for the cockpit, heat blade extended from the shield. Mu was far too experienced for such a straightforward attack, jetting the Armor forward, sacrificing the wire of one of the pods for his life. However, he gave up his position as a result, and watched the SCAU wave jauntily at him before darting through the hull door.

Naturally, Mu gave chase.

- The Killer -

**Heliopolis Colony, Morgenroete Residential Area**

Kira gently eased the Augury into a crouch, watching Ramius for signs that he was doing anything wrong. All he saw was her thumbs up as she ran into the pack transporter. Right now, Murrue was having him and Jack recharge their mobile suits, but where Jack had the Kiba hooked up to a mobile chemical microreactor, Kira was equipping the Augury. Apparently, each pack included an extra capacitor in its main unit, and the Juggernaut pack could equip _another_ one. Within a minute, Kira watched the icons on the HUD overlay change from white to gunmetal gray, signaling the attachment of each piece of the Juggernaut Equipment Pack. Then, an alert sounded, and the inner portion of the hull door exploded inward. On an auxiliary screen, Kira saw the white and silver SCAU emerge from the dust and debris, its left monoeye locking onto the Augury. _Le Creuset!_ Kira felt his heart rate jump, and adrenaline flooded his system. Everyone knew the famous ZAFT ace, who fought in the lunar battle, destroying an entire Berial and its escorts in a ZONGS! It was as perfect an opportunity as Kira could ask for. Murrue waved at him, signaling that the loading was complete.

The Augury rose, the gunmetal-grey pack releasing the two long-barreled weapons at its sides into the Gundam's grip, activating the Gatling gun units mounted on the main unit, and initiating the flow of energy from the secondary capacitor. Kira briefly consulted the armaments screen, selecting the Gatling guns. He would love to see the effect the 350mm Hyper-Impulse Beam Cannons had on a mobile suit, but in Heliopolis, the collateral damage could be catastrophic. The rounds the Gatling gun fired, while relatively large, would just leave disfiguring scars on the inner hull if he missed. Kira took careful aim…and fired, the burst of 85mm projectiles going exactly where he wanted. Just to the side of the SCAU, coming close enough to look like a rookie miss, but far enough that it had little chance to hit the fast mobile suit. Continuing the barrage of just-missing bullets, Kira reached into his pocked, drawing out a radio earpiece. Pressing a pre-determined sequence of buttons on the earpiece, Kira spoke on the command frequency for Le Creuset's team.

"This is Kira Yamato, pilot of the Augury. Rau Le Creuset, can you hear me?" There was a brief pause, a burst of static, before the reply came through.

"This is Rau Le Creuset. What do you want?"

"I would like to request your assistance in an operation."

"Oh, this is rich. You, an OMNI officer, want me to help you?"

"I am an officer of the Orb Intelligence Agency, investigating subversive elements within the higher echelons of the Orb government and military."

"And you would like me to aid in this investigation while you're shooting at me?"

"I do have to maintain my cover." A momentary pause.

"...Alright then, what do you want?"

"Quite simply, continue operating as if you were attempting to catch this mobile suit, and the experimental carrier."

"There's a carrier?"

"Yes." At that precise moment, an explosion sounded, and a column of dust preceded the appearance of an enormous ship, more than a third of a kilometer long. It was shaped like a long, thin wedge, tapered towards the front, ending in what looked like an enormous gunbarrel. On the sides were wings shaped like elongated right triangles, and on the dorsal surface was a smaller wedge-like structure with a large blocky object on top of it. In the back, six enormous thrusters, shaped vaguely like pods, flared, pushing the ship forward. On the forward parts of both dorsal and ventral surfaces were a total of four rounded and tapered rectangular objects. All over the ship, small aerodynamic objects showed the placement of turrets and the like.

"What in the name of Glenn is that?" Rau whispered.

"That would be the Barachiel, prototype flagship and mobile suit assault carrier." Kira explained. At that precise moment, an orange and white mobile armor appeared, coming through the hull door. "I'm about to fire one of my main weapons at you, please escape through the hole it makes in the hull. And move quickly, the nano-repair systems are designed to work fast." All he heard was a grunt from the other end of the line, as the SCAU maneuvered to avoid not only the intentionally missing Gatling gun rounds, but the CIWS guns from the Barachiel, and the linear cannon shots from the Moebius Zero. Leveling the right-hand weapon, Kira took careful aim, feeding his targeting information to Creuset's SCAU so that the ace would know how to dodge. The Hyper-Impulse Beam Cannon fired. Le Creuset elegantly danced around the stream of blue-hot plasma, which still blasted within centimeters of the SCAU's leg armor, impacting the hull. The high-density alloy resisted for an instant, causing the plasma to spread out, affecting more of the hull. The end result was a gaping hole just big enough for a mobile suit. Even as the SCAU moved towards the exit, ferrofluid was already leaking out, the nanomachines suspended in it working to seal the breach. The mobile suit just made it through, the plasma thrusters blasting some of the fluid into the colony as Le Creuset made his escape. "Tell Athrun I said hi."

- The Ace -

"Damn it!" Mu swore, slamming his fist against the side of the cockpit. There was a little popping sound, and a warning flashed on his HUD. "Oh shit." He muttered, punching the comms button. "Barachiel, this is Lieutenant Mu La Flaga of the 7th Orbital Fleet, requesting permission to land." The ace patiently waited for the response. At least, until the thruster failed, then restarted. "Barachiel, please respond, as my Moebius is about to fail catastrophically."

"Erm, Sir, this is Ensign Natarle Badgiruel, current ranking officer of the Barachiel, you may land." _That's not good_. Mu thought, bringing his badly dinged up unit over to the opening hatch, the rectangular part on the upper right of the ship. As he descended, the ship did too, bringing it in walking distance of the mobile suit that had driven the SCAU off. _I have to buy that guy a drink_.

- The Killer, The Madman, and The Mad Scientist -

**Heliopolis, Barachiel, 1st Catapult Deck/Hanger**  
**4:12 P.M. Orb time**

"You know, so long as it's over a radio so the static hides your tone, and the guy can't see your face, you're a pretty good liar Kira." Jack joked. The two new mobile suit pilots were resting on the opened hatch of the Catapult, contemplating their unique opportunity. In response, the Augury's new pilot merely shook his head. "So who's Athrun? Your former boyfriend?" Startled, Kira practically fell off the hatch, barely steadying himself.

"What! NO! He's a friend, from back when I attended Copernicus Elementary..." Both of them immediately sobered.

"So this is where you two have been." They looked behind them to see Liene approaching them from behind. "So... would you be so kind as to tell me what you two are doing, interfering in a project validated by Chief Representative Athha?" The two looked at each other briefly before Kira started talking.

"Uzumi-san didn't clear this." This generated a bemused look from the engineer that clearly stated his current opinion of that. "It's true. We only came here because he noticed a deficiency in the material reports from Heliopolis. We came here, started tracking down the 'errors' and found the G-Project." Kira continued.

"Here's the kicker: Apparently, the whole operation? It's been bankrolled by the Sahakus. And started by them, as far as I can tell." Jack slipped in, grinning. Liene just stood there. Kira was much too honest to lie. Well, at least effectively. And Jack always had that crazy grin when he delivered some truth he expected to knock someone over.

"Well, at least it wasn't the Seirans." He said honestly. Jack nodded, although Kira looked a bit doubtful. "Still, as I've said before: I enjoy making bigger and better weapons for those who I know can put them to far better use than me. And who better than you Kira?"

"Hey! What about me?" Jack cried, indignant.

"I'd rather that you were ejected out the airlock, but I suppose, you would make a somewhat better pilot for the Kiba than me." The three turned to look at the two mobile suits, stored side-by-side at the back of the hanger. Despite the current gray tones of the Gundams, they could easily imagine the units at their best.

The Augury, white torso and limbs with splashes of royal blue and bright gold, blue-outlined yellow eyes flashing, creating a somewhat heroic image.

The Kiba, all curved surfaces colored stark silver with lines of black on its joints, around its eyes, and following its spine. V-fin coms unit curving gently backwards, appearing to be horns, giving the Kiba a demonic appearance, especially with the zigzag design on its faceplate. The six sensor fines, arrayed like a frill along the scalp, lined in black. The two Chilong gauntlets on its hands, claws shining menacingly.

"So, where'd you get the term 'Gundam'?" Liene asked the two, looking them questioningly in the eyes.

"It's what the acronym for the Operating System spells." Kira explained, having coined the term months ago.

"Huh. Catchy term. And I made it without thinking..."

"Oh, get over yourself."

- The Crucible and The Redcoats -

**Heliopolis Outer Hull**

"Alright, so let me get this straight. We're attacking this highly-advanced mobile assault carrier, which is armed like a miniaturized Berial, and its two mobile suits and Glenn knows what else, to help some Orb officer in his investigation? AM I THE ONLY ONE FINDING ANYTHING WRONG WITH THIS?" Miguel roared, his new ZONGS waving its shield around.

"Calm down Miguel. This is a golden opportunity, one way or another. If what this Kira character says is true, then not only will we be able to wrest control of the prototype ship and the mobile suits from the Earth Alliance, but we'll also ingratiate Orb to ZAFT. If he's lying, then we'll be able to at least destroy them." Rau explained. "Especially with Athrun helping."

The green-eyed Coordinator himself was currently running a systems check, looking for any small errors that could potentially prove fatal. From the outside, the Bastion looked very intimidating, its fiery colors contrasting against the black and pinprick white of space. With the extended V-fin, the glinting blue eyes, and the grill-like faceplate, it gave off a commanding aura. With the shoulder, elbow, wrist and knee flanges, the body of the Bastion looked ominous, almost. The shield it held in its left hand had a 580mm Multi-Phase Beam Cannon built into it, the wide-bore barrel planted directly in the center of the shield's face. In the Bastion's right hand was gripped a beam rifle, about three meters long with a 57mm bore. Across its back was strapped the main melee weapon, a pole-arm.

Check completed, Athrun began logging into the Network.

The Network was, perhaps, one of the greatest advantages the ZONGS and the SCAU had over the ZAMS. By integrating with each other via a combination of quantum communications and tachyon burst transmissions, the ZAFT mobile suits were able to instantaneously pass information to each other. Any information, whatsoever. Targeting data, weather, gravitational anomalies, time, damage, munitions, anything. Which made some of the discoveries about the G Units rather alarming.

For one, the black 'Gundam' as personnel were calling them, had an improved version of the AMBAC system that had caused the scientists back at the PLANTS to rant and rave when the preliminary data was transmitted. However, it appeared that all of OMNI's prototype units had something similar to the Network. And they had lucked out when Athrun had stolen the Bastion, apparently the base for said network. Instead of quantum comms and tachyon transmitters though, OMNI's version relied on encrypted radio burst transmissions.

"Hello? Athrun?" The Red snapped out of his reverie, snapping his head up to see Miguel looking annoyed on the comms screen. "You were listening? I asked what your connection is to this Kira guy."

"Well...I went to the moon after that Blue Cosmos attack on me and my father, remember?" Athrun said, pausing to see Miguel's impatient nod. "I met Kira there. We pretty much became the poster boys for 'BFFs at first sight'."

"...You didn't...date him, did you?" The Bastion's head slowly turned to face Miguel's ZONGS. The next second, a momentary pulse from the Bastion's thrusters sent its shield slamming into the chest of the ZONGS. Before the blow sent the ZAFT mobile suit flying, four insect-like appendages extended from the edges of the shield and wrapped around the ZONGS, holding it tightly.

"I _dare_ you to say anything so much as insinuating that I'm gay again." Athrun's voice hissed, speakers enhancing the menace. "Then we'll see what happens to a ZONGS blasted by a Beam Cannon at close range." Miguel just nodded. Despite his 'famous' status and reputation as an ace, Athrun was generally regarded as a prodigy. Also, despite the prideful denials of the ZAFT engineers, the Bastion out-teched the ZONGS by a good two orders of magnitude.

"Stop!" Rau commanded, voice echoing over the comm lines. "We're almost to the designated point. Get ready" The appendages slowly withdrew back into their storage spaces on the edges of the shield. The Bastion's glare held the ZONGS captive for a moment before Athrun maneuvered the Gundam back the somewhat weaker hull section where Le Creuset and his SCAU escaped.

- The Killer, The Madman, The Mad Scientist, and The Ace -

**Barachiel, 1st Catapult Deck/Hanger**

The three Coordinators were still standing around when Mu La Flaga came around.

"Yo! You're the guys that beat those ZAFT suits right? I gotta say, that's impressive." Kira and Jack looked at each other before bowing before Mu.

"Thank you very much for your kind praise, Mu-san" Kira said respectfully. "But still, it's nothing compared to what you did, destroying several mobile suits in a mobile armor."

"Aw, come on, it wasn-"

"Respectfully speaking, yes it was. I was one of the refugees fleeing the battle of Endymion." At this, the Hawk of Endymion's eyes saddened.

"The 'heating system malfunction'?"

"Yes."

"Then we're birds of a feather." La Flaga said earnestly giving Kira a friendly pat on the back and getting a weary smile from him. "So, Liene, I heard you had something to show me?"

"Hmm? Oh yes, come with me to the second deck." Curious, Kira and Jack followed the two to the elevator to the second catapult deck that connected the two lower catapults. There, they barely managed to avoid being trampled by a horde of mechanics wielding all sorts of tools and implements. In the center of the hanger, they saw two things.

First, was the badly damaged remains of Mu;s old Moebius Zero, armor plating holed and torn by numerous minor hits that, upon landing, had combined into a series of gaping wounds.

Second, a meter to the left of the wreckage was a shining purple and black mobile armor, vaguely similar in design to the Barachiel, in that it was shaped like an aerodynamic wedge, with pod-shaped engines at the rear. However, there were eight depressions, evenly spread among the surface, four in front and four in back. There were also two smaller, thinner, longer ones that began in what looked like launcher ports near the cockpit area.

"I give you, the Shadowfax." Liene presented proudly. The three pilots made the appropriate sounds of awe, impression, and excitement. "An entirely new design, the Shadowfax was originally thought up by OMNI's design bureau."

"What happened?" Jack asked with a bored look on his face. He'd known Liene long enough to figure this was going to be a long talk.

"I took the design and improved on it, using some of your comments made a while ago." Jack snorted.

"I hope you made the necessary notations on the patent..."

"Anyway, as you all know, the main problem, the reason why mobile armors continue to lose to mobile suits, is because of a lack of reaction speed and a limitation in weapons options." Mu nodded. He'd come across those problems many times in his career as a mobile armor pilot, although the former issue was questionable as to whether it was because Coordinators generally piloted mobile suits and Naturals generally piloted mobile armors. "Well, with the Shadowfax, we have managed to completely eliminate the second issue, and partially solve the first. Those depressions you see? They're weapon mounts, each capable of five different types of weapons – at least, so far." A low whistle emanated from Mu's mouth. "So far, we've made CIWS like the ones the Barachiel mounts, twin-barreled linear repeaters, micro-missile pods, and pulsed chemical lasers for 'standard' weaponry." At this point, Mu was staring at the armor with a look of adoration. "Oh, and for people with spatial awareness like yours Mu, we also have wired detachable beam guns and linear cann-" Liene was interrupted when Mu slapped the engineer on the back.

"You've made my day Liene. When can I try it out?" Right then, an ear-piercing alarm sounded, causing red strobe lights to paint the room.

"Right now, apparently." Liene replied dryly. Turning, he ran for the intercom. Jamming his finger at the button, he selected the bridge channel. "Miss Ramius?"

"What is it Liene?"

"I would advise that you take the Barachiel into the center of the colony's atmosphere. As most of the gravity is generated by centripetal force, the center would have the least gravity, giving the Shadowfax, Augury, and Kiba the best maneuverability available."

Meanwhile, Kira and Jack had already rushed back to the first deck, climbing onto the catwalks leading to their respective mobile suits and leaping into the cockpits. Both strapped themselves in, ran a system check and prepared for battle.

- The Pilots -

The ZONGS moved quickly as the missiles streaked in, the flare of its thrusters propelling it to the side a split-second before they impacted. Instead, the missiles smashed into an artificial hillside, leaving enormous smoking craters. The Barachiel's quad-barreled CIWS guns roared, spewing 75mm rounds at a rate of nearly 5000 per minute. The rounds chewed away at the leg of a ZAMS wielding two large cannons, ripping the limb away as the mobile suit aimed its weapons. The two particle beam weapons fired, gulping power from the large capacitor-backpack attached to the ZAMS. Its' aim thrown off by the impact of the CIWS, the heavy particle beams struck the starboard armor instead of the bridge, destroying a few kilograms worth of armor. On the same side, just to the left of the impact point, a large cannon emerged from the 'bubble', extending to full length at 50 meters, and swiveling on a turret mount. _Fuck it_. The pilot named Hans fought. He'd already gotten his nose badly cut, practically bisecting the body part. He wasn't about to risk his life to help a foreign agent. He exited the ZAMS just as the railgun fired, the high-density projectile slamming into the ZAMS and crushing it, causing a seeming explosion of kinetic energy.

On the Barachiel, three of the hatches to the linear catapults opened, the two on the top and the bottom left one. From the bottom-left, Mu launched in the Shadowfax, weapon pods filling out the wedge-like design of the mobile armor. The upper-left catapult launched the Kiba, silver and black flowing into existence on its armor as the manipulators attached the gauntlets, claws flashing into a bright platinum as their own Phase Shift Alloys activated.

From the upper right, the Augury launched, a shield clutched in its left hand and its right going to the large sword attached to the pack's main unit as it cleared the catapult. On each of its legs were attached blue pods, similar to ones on its front torso, and outer shoulders. Larger blue pods were placed on the inner parts of the shoulders. The Cavalier Pack was supposed to be the most agile of the three Equipment Packs currently available, and would be most useful in this situation, where the atmosphere and somewhat limited space would impair the Angelos' mobility, and where the Juggernaut's firepower would catastrophically damage the colony if misfired.

The first victim to any of the three was when a ZAMS flew at the Shadowfax, going for the 'easier' target. The pilot, Bois, didn't expect the hail of magnetically-accelerated rounds from the gun forward of the cockpit and on the upper-left to chew at his suit's head and left shoulder, ripping away armor plating and the monoeye. A few rounds penetrated the somewhat denser cockpit armor, ripping away his left arm. The ZAMS dropped way instantly, and Mu fed more power into the thrusters, chasing after another ZAMS.

- The Crucible and The Madman -

Rau Le Creuset, in his SCAU, faced off against the Kiba, Miguel having gone after the Augury with Athrun. The team commander heard a crackle, just like when Yamato had contacted him, and he heard a new voice.

"So, you're Le Creuset, are you?"

"Indeed," Rau replied. "And who would this be?"

"I'm Jack, Kira's partner."

"A pleasure to meet you." At this point, Rau charged the silver Gundam, machine gun firing uselessly as he unsheathed the heat-blade. Jack ignored the bullets, moving instead to dodge the slice from the blade. He discovered the ruse when the SCAU's leg kicked into the cockpit area, rattling him.

_'Oh come on! Give me control; let me rip his suit limb from limb!'_ Chimamare howled, raging inside his skull.

"Shut up you idiot." Jack whispered, too low for the earpiece to pick up. "If you go nuts now, everything could go sour."

_'There's no way I was ever a part of you...'_ the alter muttered, subsiding. Recovering, Jack counterattacked, slicing with the right claws and managing to scratch the paint of the SCAU's head as Le Creuset dodged. The ace returned the gesture, scraping the heat-blade across the Kiba's neck, leaving a small scar of heated armor. Then, the Gundam's faceplate opened along the zigzag design, inside glowing blue-white. The ZAFT commander reacted too slowly, and the searing burst of ions struck his SCAU's right arm, leaping like a straightened bolt of lightning through the shoulder and into a small apartment complex, thankfully already evacuated. The heat was felt by Rau, causing him to feel briefly uncomfortable. The shield rose, this time to fire the machine cannon along with the ones in its torso, bullets ramming into the torso armor of the Kiba. This time, the left claw took the arm as the right sliced at the left side of the head, cutting out the monoeye there.

"You're rather good aren't you?" Rau said, firing the leg thrusters as he retreated.

"Me and Kira used your data to practice against in the simulators."

- The Killer and The Redcoats -

At that moment, Kira was facing Miguel again, the Magic Bullet of Dusk in his borrowed ZONGS.

"So...I guess you think you're hot shit in that mobile suit eh?"

"Well, it's rather different from the ZONGS simulators I'm used to..." The conversation ceased as Miguel charged, machine gun firing as he moved to slam the Gundam with his shield. The Cavalier Pack's microthrusters fired, moving the Augury ever so slightly, causing the burst to miss. When the ZONGS shield moved, the Augury's right hand, still clutching the grip of the sword, moved. The eight-meter blade emerged from its' sheath, beam edge flowing into existence as it sliced down, carving through shield and limb. Before Miguel could move anymore, both the Augury's main thrusters and the microthrusters fired, flipping the Gundam over the ZONGS. A 180-degree spin sliced the "Clarent" sword through the ZONGS midsection, parting legs from torso. The cockpit of the ZONGS fell, only head and right arm still attached. Before it fell too far though, the Bastion's shield slammed into it, appendages gripping the remains of the mobile suit. The two Gundams looked at each other.

"Athrun."

"Kira." The Augury moved, pointing the tip of its sword at the Bastion, which holstered the beam rifle on its thigh, drawing the Beam Naginata. Despite these threatening actions, the two pilots had a rather friendly conversation.

"So, how have you been?"

"I've been OK. You'll never guess though."

"What?"

"Turns out, I'm the Chief Representative's son."

"WHAT!" At this point, the fight had begun, both skillfully attacking, and parrying the others attacks….at least, to the view of any unskilled observers.

"Yep. His daughter's my twin sister."

"I always figured you two looked alike."

To the side, the remaining ZAMS dodged the Shadowfax's fire, although it still had its' legs holed from the railgun shots from the Barachiel. In the bridge, Natarle grew impatient.

"Aim the beam cannon!" Despite their doubts, the crew followed her command, aiming the center port beam cannon. "Fire!" A green beam shot from the bore, speeding through the upper right section of the ZAMS. And into the center structure of Heliopolis. The effect was instantaneous, and obvious.

The structure melted, and the colony shuddered, damage from the fights inside and outside it speeding up the inevitable. The centripetal force ripped Heliopolis to shreds, dirt, concrete, and metal flying away. The rushing winds of the escaping atmosphere pulled the mobile suits along, scattering them all over. It was done minutes later.

The Augury floated in the debris field, Kiba behind it. In the cockpit, Kira's lips thinned, becoming an emotionless line as his eyes briefly dilated, shrinking to pinpricks.

- The Author -

A/N: Phew, done. About four hundred words more than last phase. Anyway, I'll have the tech chapter up today too, so check in about half an hour.

Kira's quite a bit sneakier in this story. He still can't lie well though. Not face to face at least.

Oh, I forgot to tell you guys the meaning of Jack's names eh?

Kagizaki: To rip, tear

Chimamare: Blood-stained

He's Jack the Ripper. ("Your jokes suck") Shut up.

Thawn716: Pretty much

nxkris: Well, I replaced the mobile suits because...well, I wanted to see what I and other people could come up with to fill similar roles. I'd like to think that we've come up with some interesting things.

Alright, I know more people have seen this than have reviewed. Please review, as I want to see what you guys think. Is the story good so far, is it redundant, do the suits suck, come on, and help me improve my writing. I do want to make a living one day.

Knightmare Gundam of Ni


	4. Technical File 01

Gundam Seed: Killer's Realm

File 01

**XGAT-115**

_Augury (A sign of something coming; an **omen**)_

Pilot: Kira Yamato

Unit Type: Prototype Multipurpose All-Terrain Special Operations Mobile Suit

Manufacturer: Morgenroete Armories

Operators: OMNI Enforcer (Barachiel Detachment)

Height (unequipped): 18.2 Meters

Weight (unequipped): 67.6 Metric Tons

Armor Materials: Electroactive Titanium/Carbon Alloy

Power Source: Compact Rechargeable High-Energy Capacitor

Propulsion: Multiple Plasma Verniers

Operating System: General United Neo-construct Dynamic Assault Module

Special Systems: AMBAC (Active Mass Balance Auto-Control)

Equipment and Design Features: Variable Operation Phase Shift Armor  
Equipment Pack hardpoints

Fixed Armaments: 2 x "Igelstellung" 75mm fire-linked CIWS

Hand Armaments: 2 x Beam Sabers  
2 x "Dylandy" 25 mm Beam Pistols, Equipment Pack Armaments

Bio: The XGAT-115 Augury is one of the mobile suits developed by OMNI Enforcers G Project. Unlike the other four units developed by the G Project, Augury had only a partial operating system, the basics for operating its numerous equipment packages. When ZAFT infiltrated Heliopolis in order to steal the G Units, the Augury was retrieved by Murrue Ramius and Kira Yamato. However, due to its incomplete O.S and unskilled pilot, Augury was incapable of defeating the single mobile suit squad that the ZAFT soldiers brought. However, Kira managed to rewrite the O.S, incorporating parts of a specialized system he had been developing independently. Then, he took over the mobile suit and destroyed the unit easily.

The Augury is designed to be a multiple-role unit, using its Equipment Packs to adapt to any situation. As such, it currently has three whole packs, replacement parts for each, and several unassembled and incomplete packs. The three packs are the Cavalier for melee combat, the Juggernaut for base and ship assault, and the Angelos for high mobility and atmospheric flight. Each pack consists of a "backpack" that often mounts the packs main equipment and incorporates a compact medium-sized energy capacitor, and small add-ons designed to fit onto the Augury's limbs, head and body that optimize the mobile suit for situations that pack is made for. The Augury is capable of using its packs in two different 'modes': complete and partial. Complete mode is when the main pack and all the small units are equipped. Partial mode is when only the main pack is equipped.

Its Phase Shift Armor differs in from that of the other units' in that it has variable modes of operation, giving it more versatility. The change in settings also causes it to change color slightly. Aside from altering power consumption, the different settings can also have unforeseen effects. For instance, one of the higher settings temporarily ionized the air around the Augury, giving it a limited plasma shield that, according to simulator results, may block beams.

Its standard armaments consist of the 75mm CIWS machine cannons for use against missiles, aircraft and ground targets, two Beam Sabers and the two special operations "Dylandy" Beam Pistols, which focus a beam rifle's standard energy and plasma into a denser beam. The Beam Sabers are stored in special compartments built into the Augury's thighs, and can be quickly drawn, igniting the beam once the top is clear of the compartment. The Beam Pistols are stored in holster units behind the Beam Saber compartments, for similar reasons.

In normal operation, the Augury is colored mainly white, with blue secondary coloring and gold highlights. It was intended to be the precursor of elite Special Forces units with similar operational procedures, which would also fill the role of 'poster machine'. Thus the name Augury, as in an augury of good times to come.

Equipment Pack **XEP-0331D**

_Cavalier_

Unit Type: Extended Close Range Combat and Ship Defense Pack

Main Armaments: 1 x "Clarent" Anti-Ship Sword

Secondary Armaments: 2 x Beam Boomerangs

Tertiary Armaments (Add-Ons): 1 x Anti-Missile Laser

Main Equipment: 1 x Small Anti-Beam Shield

Secondary Equipment (Add-ons): 6 x Micro-Thrusters  
2 x Electronic Concealment Units (ECU)

Bio: The Cavalier pack is designated as a melee and defensive pack, used mainly for the interception of attacking mobile suits and general ship defense using the Augury's built-in CIWS and Anti-Missile Laser Add-on for smaller enemies. As such, its main equipment uses the Anti-Ship Sword for attack and the Anti-Beam Shield for defense. For ranged combat situations, the Cavalier pack boasts two Beam Boomerang weapons that use a series of carefully controlled thrusters to accelerate the weapon on an 'orbit' from the Augury to the target and back.

In order to facilitate the rapid defense of allies, the Cavalier pack's add-ons consist mostly of extra thrusters in sets of two on the legs, chest, and shoulders to increase maneuverability. Also, it equips two ECUs in order to aid in avoiding target lock and dodging missiles.

Equipment Pack **XEP-0250B**

_Juggernaut_

Unit Type: Long-Range Base/Ship Assault and Force Deterrent Pack

Main Armaments: 2 x "Ares" 350mm Hyper Impulse Beam Cannons  
2 x 275mm "Artemis" Linear Cannons  
1 x "Rudra" 600mm Multi-Phase Beam Cannon

Secondary Armaments: 4 x Missile Launchers  
2 x Gatling Guns

Equipment (Add-ons): 4 x Medium Ammo Containers  
1 x Extra Capacitor  
1x Electronic Enhancer Unit (EEU)

Bio: As stated, the Juggernaut pack is intended for the assault and destruction of ground and space bases as well as capital ships, although its equipment is equally suited for hindering attacks by mobile suits from long ranges. As such, the Juggernaut pack mounts two Hyper Impulse Beam Cannons with under-slung Linear Cannons loaded with explosive ammunition for general-purpose destruction, switching between either of the two sets depending on targets and energy restrictions. For more indiscriminate attacks, the Juggernaut also hosts a Multi-Phase Beam Cannon array on its back, which 'folds out' over the Augury's right shoulder. Its secondary equipment consists of four shoulder based missile launchers with variable ordnance ranging from EMP to Flash to High Explosive Armor Piercing (expensive). For use against some of the more stubborn aircraft and non-Phase-Shifted mobile suits, the Juggernaut uses two ten-barrel Gatling Guns with armor-piercing ammunition mounted in between the missile launchers and the Multi-Phase Beam Cannon.

In order to extend its use before recharging and rearming, the Juggernaut Pack adds-on medium-sized ammunition containers on the hips and lower back for extra reloads and/or differing ordnance, as well as an extra energy capacitor. To aid in target acquisition and elimination, the Juggernaut pack is equipped with an EEU.

Equipment Pack** XEP-0061A**

_Angelos_

Unit Type: Scouting, High Mobility and Atmospheric Flight Combat Pack

Hand Armaments: 1 x 57mm Beam Rifle  
2 x Beam Sabers

Fixed Armaments: 1 x Micro-Missile Launcher  
2 x Anti-Missile Lasers

Equipment: 1 x Anti-Beam Shield

Equipment (Add-Ons): 2 x Ramjet Boosters  
4 x Thrusters  
1 x Electronic Warning and Control System (EWACS)

Bio: One of the earlier equipment packs designed, Angelos is made for scouting and high-speed combat in both air and space, as well as on land. As such, its main unit has not only the main equipment, but also two mobile wings and four high-energy thrusters with ramjets that collect and expel plasma exhaust at a higher velocity to improve mobility. Its main armaments are a versatile beam rifle and two beam sabers for melee combat, with an Anti-Beam Shield for defense against attack. Secondary weapons includes a micro-missile launcher, a smaller version of the ones on the Juggernaut pack, with the same ordnance, as well as two anti-missile lasers more powerful than the tertiary one mounted on the Cavalier pack.

The Angelos' add-ons include ramjets mounted on the leg thrusters similar to the ones on the pack thrusters, and extra thrusters similar in purpose and placement to the Cavaliers. It also equips a EWACS electronic warfare package to the Augury's head to both decrease the effectiveness of enemy sensors and increase the effectiveness of allied ones.

Designer's Note: The wings are like the ones on the Hajime Katoki redesign of Wing Gundam.

**XGAT-013X**

_Kiba_

Pilot: Jack Kagizaki

Unit Type: Prototype High-Performance Hand-to-Hand Combat Mobile Suit

Manufacturer: Morgenroete Armories

Operator: OMNI Enforcer (Barachiel Detachment)

Height: 18.3 Meters

Weight: 58.7 Metric Tons

Armor Materials: Electroactive Titanium/Carbon Alloy

Power Source: Compact Rechargeable High-Energy Capacitor

Propulsion: Multiple Plasma Thrusters

Operating System: General United Neo-construct Dynamic Assault Module

Special Systems: AMBAC  
Mirage Colloid Stealth

Equipment and Design Features: Low-weight/density Phase Shift Armor  
Sensor spines,

Hand Armaments: 2 x "Chilong" Phase Shift Claw gauntlets  
1 x 57mm Beam Rifle

Fixed Armaments: 1 x "Draconis" 25mm Experimental Miniaturized Positron Cannon  
1 x "Nidhoggr" 20mm High-Density Ion Beam Cannon  
2 x "Igellstellung" 35mm CIWS

Bio: One of the earlier designs, the Kiba in its original incarnation was meant to be a frontline unit similar to the Enmity, only it would be in the midst of the enemy forces, causing havoc. The Earth Alliance's engineers couldn't make the theoretical technologies work, and abandoned the design. However, when Rondo Ghina Sahaku directed Morgenroete to take part in the G Project, the Orb engineer Liene resurrected the mobile suit as its current incarnation, the Kiba, embarrassing the OMNI engineers, and showcasing his skills.

The Kiba is designed for, unusually, hand-to-hand combat with other mobile suits. The main weapons indeed are its manipulators themselves. Created by using high-density alloys and hardened ceramic composites, the hands are quite able to use the Kiba's impossible strength to karate chop ZAMS in half, puncture ZONG torsos and even tear apart battleship hulls. However, the Kiba truly excels in its role when it equips the "Chilong" claws. Essentially two gloves designed to smoothly slide over the Kiba's manipulators and hook up to its power grid, the claws are monomolecular-edged, and more than capable of cutting almost anything apart. Made of a strengthened Aluminum-Titanium alloy, they are extremely strong and can go long periods of time without maintenance. However, the claws, already dangerous, become exponentially more terrifying when their main feature is active. Like the armor on the Gundams, the claws on the gauntlet can Phase-Shift. When doing so, they turn from bright gray to a shining silver, and become capable of literally cutting through anything. Due to this, the Kiba has from time-to-time been jokingly referred to as the "Anti-Gundam Gundam".

In order for the Kiba to get close enough to its targets without being attacked from range, it is equipped with a lesser version of the standard Mirage Colloid system, which, instead of rendering the Gundam imperceptible to sight and sensors, cause a sort of mirage effect, making the mobile suit appear to be little more than an error in the enemy's computers.

However, the Kiba would be extremely limited in most forms of modern combat if it didn't have some kind of ranged weapons. So, in hopes of making it more powerful, Morgenroete's engineers added a smaller, yet still powerful, version of the Positron Cannon installed on their Izumo-class ships to the design, mounting the weapon in the Kiba's head behind the faceplate. As yet, the weapon has proven useless if not dangerous, causing either uncontrollable blasts or minuscule flashes of light. Some theories among the engineers in regard to this point to a deficiency in the capacitors powering the magnetic coils responsible for focusing the positrons into a coherent beam. So, in addition to the Positron Cannon, a more successful Ion Beam Cannon was installed in the higher portion of the Kiba's head, just above the Positron Cannon. Using an electrode, the weapon fires supercharged ions at near-luminal speeds, creating extreme devastation at the impact point.

Otherwise, for more conventional ranged combat, the Kiba also has a 57mm beam rifle, holstered on the back of its waist when not in use, as well as the CIWS guns.

The Kiba's physical design is standard in some respects and revolutionary in others. It possesses the standard torso design of the Augury, and the design of its limbs only differs in the make-up of its manipulators. The main difference from the other units comes in its head. Instead of the standard grill, the Kiba's faceplate has a zigzag design crossing it, where the faceplate is able to separate, allowing the Positron Cannon or the Ion Beam Cannon to fire. The frame and most of the armor are constructed mainly of light-weight and low-density alloys, causing the Kiba to, on average, equal the Noctoraptor in development cost. However, as a result, the Kiba is more maneuverable both in space and atmosphere. Also, on the top of its head are six additional sensor fins similar in purpose to the standard V-fin, arranged one behind the other, which has been elongated and thickened to incorporate more powerful sensor equipment. Each fin stores some kind of sensory system, and can be used for different situations, or all together for something approaching partial omniscience. However, the more systems the Kiba uses at once, the less powerful they are.

This Gundam's color scheme is mostly a sort of platinum color, with black highlights around its joints, eyes, spine and sensor fins. Like the Augury, its eyes are a sort of yellow-gold color, as a result of the crystalline metal matrix used in the construction of the camera lenses. Because of its somewhat reflective platinum coloring and its smooth, curved surfaces, laser weapons are found to have difficulty damaging the Kiba, and targeting lasers reflect off of it, causing missiles and bombs to miss. Also, projectile weapons generally impact at an oblique, causing them to slide along the armor until they are moving on a trajectory away from it.

Designer's Note: The Kiba basically looks like your average Gundam, with the modifications above of course. The sensor fins on its head are placed along the same line as the GINN's and Commander-type ZAKU's (original, not SEED Destiny).

**XSMA-001MF**

_Shadowfax_

Pilot: Mu La Flaga

Unit Type: Prototype Space/Atmosphere High-Maneuver Mobile Armor

Manufacturer: OMNI Enforcer Research and Development Division

Operator: OMNI Enforcer (Barachiel Detachment)

Length: 16.91 Meters

Weight: 36.85 Metric Tons

Armor Materials: Titanium/Carbon Alloy

Power Source: Ultra-Compact Rechargeable High-Energy Capacitor

Propulsion: 4 x Plasma Verniers  
4 x SCRamjets/Boosters  
1 x Positron Pulse Detonation Engine

Operating System: Nucleus Attack Zeta General Union Legion system

Special Systems: Wired control system  
Targeting Uplink System

Equipment and Design Features: 8 x Weapons hardpoints  
2 x Launchers  
1 x Strategic Missile hardpoint  
Mobile Suit Equipment hardpoint  
1 x Landing Grapple

Armaments: Wire-controlled 50mm Beam Gun Pods  
Wire-Controlled 100mm Linear Cannon Pods  
Micro-Missile Launchers  
75mm CIWS  
75mm dual-barrel Linear Repeater Guns  
Pulsed Chemical Lasers

Bio: Built to be quick and agile, the Shadowfax is perhaps the most advanced mobile armor to date, and one of the best-armed, certainly. Based loosely on the older MA-002 Moebius mobile armor, the Shadowfax is designed to support the G Units in battle, being capable of carrying equipment and armaments for the mobile suits on a special hardpoint.

However, that isn't to say that it lacks teeth. With eight weapons hardpoints placed on its body, four on the forward dorsal and ventral surfaces, and four on the rear dorsal and ventral surfaces, the Shadowfax is able to strike hard, usually in hit-and-run attacks. Each hardpoint can mount one weapon, among which is included micro-missile launchers, Close-In-Weapons Systems, and powerful Linear Repeater Guns. In addition, two other weapons were made for elite pilots like Mu La Flaga. These weapon pods could detach from the Shadowfax and maneuver via thruster jets, giving the mobile armor the capability to surround a target on its own, or at least attack from multiple vectors. The two weapons that use this system are the 37mm Beam Guns, somewhat smaller, less powerful versions of the Beam Rifles, and the Linear Cannons.

Also, the Shadowfax possesses two multipurpose launchers that can launch...well, anything that can fit. Tracking beacons, flares, Rocket-Propelled Grenades, almost anything.

The Shadowfax's main propulsion comes from the four Plasma Verniers placed at the rear of its aerodynamic, wedge-like body. However, the mobile armors astonishing speed comes from the special SCRamjet/Boosters also built into the rear. In atmosphere, they act like normal SCRAMjets, compressing gases, ionizing them, and venting them out the rear as plasma. In space, though, they move to attach to the Verniers, increasing their normal output by a factor of at least five. Also available to the Shadowfax is the experimental Positron Pulse Detonation Engine. This engine, based on the earlier fuel-based Pulse Detonation Engine, uses Positrons and electrons to generate power via annihilation reactions inside chambers designed to vent the force so that the force is exerted to the rear of the craft, further increasing its speed. However, this Engine can only be used in short bursts, as the engine is still structurally unstable, and the Shadowfax is incapable of generating it's own positrons to fuel the reactions, requiring it to return to the ship every so often to resupply.

Designer's Note: It looks like Arios' aircraft form from Gundam 00, only more streamlined and rounded, like the F-35. It has small depressions where the weapon mounts are, and the back end has the four oval SCRamjets next to the main thrusters, with the large engine in the middle.

Celestial-Class

**CPH-01** (Carrier Promenade – Hydrogen powered)

_Barachiel_

Captain: Murrue Ramius

Purpose: Mobile Suit/Armor Assault Carrier

Manufacturer: Morgenroete Armories

Operator: OMNI Enforcer

Length: 400 meters

Width: 200 meters

Weight/Displacement: 150,000 Metric Tons

Power Source: Multiple Hydrogen Fuel Cells, Solar Sails,

Propulsion: 6 Large Plasma Thrusters

Sensors: Phased-Array Radar, Sonar.

Armor: Laminated Titanium/Aluminum/Osmium Alloy, reinforced with Monomolecular Carbon Fibers

Main Armaments: 300-meter long "Inferno" Positron Cannon  
300-meter long "Longinus" Hyper-Accelerated Linear Cannon

Secondary Armaments: 8 x 250mm Railguns  
4 x 400mm Beam Cannons  
2 x 500mm Dual-Barrel Beam Cannons  
36 multipurpose missile launchers.

Tertiary Armaments: 8 x 75mm CIWS guns  
10 x Pulse Free Electron Laser Turrets

Minimum/Maximum Crew: 50/500

Maximum Mobile Suit/Armor Capacity: 16

Bio: The Barachiel is the prototype mobile suit carrier developed by the G Project, made to oppose ZAFT's own carrier craft. Based on the designs of both Orb's Izumo-class warships, and OMNI Enforcer's Berial-class Mobile Fortresses, the Barachiel combines the best aspects of both classes, the Izumo's carrying capacity, and the Berial's armaments and armor, into a single class. While the Barachiel is the very first Celestial-class warship actually made, it is actually developed from a similar design code-named Celestial, which is where the name of the class came from.

Built in response to the introduction and increasing numbers of Nazca-class mobile suit carriers, the Barachiel was intended to lead a new fleet consisting of similar ships in battle against the PLANTS and ZAFT, carrying mobile suits and support armors within them. However, with the destruction of Heliopolis and the loss of most of the research and materials, OMNI will find it more difficult to mass-produce them.

Meant for submersible, atmospheric, and zero-gravity environments, the Barachiel is made to be aerodynamic, capable of independently reentering the atmosphere. The bridge is made to slide into a hollow space beneath it, decreasing air resistance and protecting the bridge from damage. Above the bridge is mounted the primary sensor system, a phased-array radar. This system is capable of multiple simultaneous levels of operation, saving both space and energy. On the underside of the ship, a small bubble marks the sonar system, capable of receiving sonic frequencies beyond the range of human hearing.

The Barachiel's main weapons are the two monstrous cannons that the ship is built around, both running three-fourths of the ship's length. One is a smaller, yet more advanced version of the Berial-class's main gun, a "Longinus" HALC. The other is developed from the Izumo-class' main Positron Beam Cannon, albeit lengthened and upgraded considerably. The HALC utilizes both magnetic coils and magnetic rails in order to accelerate one of a number of different projectile types. The coils activate first, generating a positive field and attracting the negatively charged projectile. A few milliseconds afterwards, the rails activate, negative fields repelling the projectile and increasing its velocity. A recent innovation is the curving of the rails around the barrel, creating an effect similar to that of rifling in infantry-scale weapons. The Positron Beam Cannon uses a combination of magnetic coils and an electrode to concentrate anti-electrons, otherwise known as positrons, into a cohesive beam and firing it at an extremely high percentage of the speed of light. The positrons are generated by using a laser to drive ionized electrons through a millimeter radius gold target's nuclei, causing the incoming electrons to emit energy quanta, which decays into both matter and antimatter.

The Barachiel's secondary weapons include large-bore railguns and beam cannons, eight of the former and four of the latter. They are spread equally among the ship's hull, ensuring an even spread of defensive fire, with four railguns and two beam cannons on each side. Also, two dual-barrel 500mm beam cannons are mounted forward and to the side of the bridge, each with a horizontal coverage of 210 degrees, and a vertical coverage of 150 degrees. Multipurpose missile launchers are spread out in groups of six over the ship, with two groups on the underside of the ship, four on the sides, and two on the forward dorsal surface. When not in use, the secondary weapons are covered with an aerodynamic bubble of armor to protect from damage.

For close in defense, the Barachiel has eight 75mm quad-barrel guns and ten .01mm free electron laser turrets, scattered evenly as with the secondary weapons.

Due to the extensive automation of the ship, only about 50 people are required to effectively operate the ship, although this is only if the ship has no mobile suits or armors on board and thus no need for mechanics for either. The maximum hygienic capacity for the crew is 500, with five per quarters and the officers remaining alone in their own. However, the Barachiel can, in extreme conditions, carry refugees in the hanger decks and storage rooms.

Each hanger deck of the ship has berths for eight mobile suits or mobile armors, for a total of sixteen. With the four catapults, the Barachiel is capable of launching all of its units within thirty seconds in ideal conditions.

The systems powering the Barachiel were designed by Lien Van Dalygon, the only work the Morgenroete engineer ever did on the ship. The ship makes extensive use of hydrogen fuel cells, several powering the ships systems simultaneously in specified points between hull layers to prevent extensive damage should they rupture. Due to this decentralized power structure, the Barachiel cannot be crippled by a single hit to a reactor and/or generator. Also, the hydrogen fuel cells can recharge through the electrolysis of water, and also generate water as a waste, creating a pseudo-self sustaining process. As a backup to the fuel cells, the Barachiel has a solar sail array in front of the thrusters, and behind the bridge. Collectively, the entire surface area is about 500 meters of photoreactive material, consisting of cellulose and metallic nanotubes as well as carbon nanotubes. All together, the general effect is that of a solar-recharging paper battery.

The main propulsion of the Barachiel is the six Plasma Thrusters located in the rear, which use – as all others – electromagnetic technology to propel plasma as exhaust and generate thrust. However, the solar sail can use the light of the sun to propel the ship as well. Via the use of a mirror mounted behind the sail, the suns light can be focused into a laser beam onto the sail, which would absorb some of the photons but reflect the rest due to the metallic nanotubes, and generate thrust in the same way that two negatively charged magnets would.

The Barachiel's coloring corresponds to that of the Augury, being intended for a similar role amongst the fleet as the Augury would have been amongst the mobile suit forces.

The Barachiel is named for one of the ruling seraphim in Eastern Orthodox Christianity, and the angel of lightning.

Designer's Note: Promenade is French for walk. The Naval code for nuclear-powered aircraft carriers is CVN, which is Carrier Voler Nuclear. Voler is French for fly. Kinda obvious for us people taking French eh?

**XGAT-304**

_Bastion_

Pilot: Athrun Zala

Unit Type: Prototype Command Mobile Suit

Manufacturer: Morgenroete Armories

Operator: ZAFT (Le Creuset Team)

Height: 18.6 Meters

Weight: 72.86 Metric Tons

Armor Materials: Electroactive Titanium/Carbon Alloy

Power Source: Compact Rechargeable High-Energy Capacitor

Propulsion: Multiple Plasma Verniers

Operating System: General Unilateral Neuro-link Dynamic Auto-Maneuver System

Special Systems: AMBAC

Equipment and Design Features: EWACS  
1 x Anti-Beam Shield  
Phase Shift Armor

Fixed Armaments: 2 x Forearm Beam Claws  
2 x "Igelstellung" 75mm fire-linked CIWS

Hand Armaments: 1 x "Tonbogiri" Beam Naginata  
1 x 57mm Beam Rifle  
1 x Shield-Mounted "Rudra" 580mm Multi-Phase Cannon, 4 x Grappler Appendages

Bio: A 300-series unit, the Bastion is a special commander-type unit, originally designed for a commander of a mobile suit team that would have consisted of the G Project prototypes if not for the ZAFT attack. During the ZAFT raid on Heliopolis, the Bastion was, fittingly, stolen by Athrun Zala, second-in-command of the Le Creuset Team. The Coordinator rewrote parts of the OS for better performance, although most of the program remained intact.

Meant for commanders and leaders, the Bastion is well-suited for both roles, as a defensive type for behind-the-lines commanders and as a powerful offensive attacker for at-the-front leaders. Its design incorporates an EWACS electronic intelligence unit into it, as well as a phased-array radar sensor suite into the V-fin, which is larger than normal.

Its armaments include the standard 57mm Beam Rifle among most G Project units, and the Anti-Beam Shield included by the Enmity and the Augury. The Bastion's unique armaments include the Beam Claws mounted on the forearms, essentially two curved beam sabers extruding long past the Bastion's hands. It is also armed with the Beam Naginata, a pole-arm with a curved, beam-edged, blade well-suited for keeping enemy mobile suits at bay. One of the Bastion's most powerful weapons, however, is a Multi-Phase Beam Cannon similar to the one mounted on the Juggernaut pack. The Multi-Phase Beam Cannon fires two different types of plasma at once, an inner beam of highly compressed cooler plasma, and a lower density hotter outer beam, allowing it to easily penetrate most armor.

Other than the Multi-Phase Beam Cannon, the Bastion's shield is equipped with four 'Grappler' Appendages, similar in appearance to the appendages of arthropods. When not in use, the appendages are folded within the edges of the shield. When activated, they extend and fold out, grabbing whatever happens to be in range and holding it to the muzzle of the Beam Cannon.

Intended to give a "fiery" feeling during combat, the Bastion is a mix of bright red, orange and gold, with red being the predominant color. However, as a result of the system changes made to incorporate this effect, the Bastion is actually better resistant to beam and other thermal energy weapons than the other G Units, although radiation weaponry is theorized to be more effective against it in simulations. A fact that is pretty much inconsequential, given the continued presence of Neutron Jammers.

Original Mechanical Designer: Animefan29

**ZGMF-122 **

_ZONGS (ZAFT Original Networked General-purpose Suit)_

Unit Type: Limited Production General Purpose Mobile Suit

Manufacturer: ZAFT Integrated Design Bureau

Height: 18.37 meters

Weight: 74.5 metric tons

Armor Materials: Titanium Ceramic Composite

Power Source: Ultra Compact Rechargeable Energy Battery

Propulsion: Multiple Plasma Verniers

Operating System: Composite Rapid Action Program

Special Systems: AMBAC  
Networked Assault System

Equipment and design features: multipurpose sensors stored in head crests alongside communication equipment

Fixed Armaments: 1 x MA-M1 heavy knife, stored in right forearm  
1 x B22 Multipurpose Grenade Launcher  
2 x 12.5mm anti-infantry guns

Hand Armaments: MMI-M8A3 76mm heavy assault machinegun  
M66 "Canus" short range guided missile launcher  
M68 "Pardus" 3-barrel missile launcher  
M68 "Cattus" 500mm recoilless rifle  
M69 "Barrus" heavy particle cannon  
76mm sniper rifle

Bio: The ZONGS is the limited-production unit of ZAFT, designed for elite pilots. Unlike the earlier produced ZAMS, the ZONG is more humaniform, possessing thicker and better built limbs as well as a less rotund torso. Also, it has a better version of the AMBAC system used in mobile suits than the ZAMS, being less suited for zero-gravity operations without the improved system.

The ZONGS' armaments range from the built-in knife and anti-infantry guns to the optional heavy particle cannon and missile launchers. This allows the ZONG to adapt to any situation as long as it has a base or ship fitted to rearm the mobile suit. As long as one of either is present, the ZONG is able to quickly and easily modify its load-out to fit the mission at hand, giving it a level of customization unprecedented by the ZAMS.

However, the ZONGS' design does not allow it the structural modularity of the ZAMS, meaning that repairs to ZONG units require a longer amount of time to complete.

The ZONGS' design came about as a result of ZAFT's desire for more independence, funding their own design bureau to supply the military with mobile suits. While during the initial introduction of the ZONG, the ZAMS was still in production as the cheaper and more easily produced mobile suit. However, with the capture of the G Units, known more widely as Gundams, and the application of some of their technology to upcoming ZONGS designs, the ZAMS is currently being phased out in favor of the high-performance mobile suit.

Perhaps the ZONGS' best feature, the Networked Assault System allows a great degree of coordination between the pilots, spreading information derived from sensors and cameras as well as targeting computers throughout the entire group of mobile suits.

Designers Note: Pretty similar to a GINN except that it is a bit smaller and lighter. It has two smaller crests instead of one in which are stored heat sensors, radar, and communications equipment. The forearms are a bit larger and more squarish to accommodate the weapons. Its primary acceleration thruster is larger and instead of the wing like vernier thruster they are placed in the shoulder and hips. I took the anti-infantry gun feature of the GAT-01A1 Dagger and added it as it seemed like a rather obvious weapons choice when dealing with an army that does not have mobile suits.

Original Mechanical Designer: Velshard

**ZGMF-101P**

_ZAMS (ZAFT Approved Mobile Suit)_

Unit Type: Mass Production General Purpose Mobile Suit

Manufacturer: Asimov Design Bureau

Operators: ZAFT (Zodiac Alliance of Freedom Treaty); various civilians

Height: 17.5 meters

Weight: 70.2 metric tons

Armor Materials: Titanium Ceramic Composite

Power Source: Ultra-Compact Energy Battery

Propulsion: Multiple Plasma Verniers

Operating System: Composite Rapid-Action Program

Special Systems: AMBAC

Equipment and Design Features: 9 x Weapons/Equipment hard point, 2 on each shoulder, forearm, hip, and outside calf, 1 on dorsal skirt armor  
M64 "Ketis" ammunition rack

Fixed Armaments: 2 x 70mm grenade launcher

Hand Armaments: M65 "Felis" 8-barrel small missile launcher  
M68 "Pardus" 3-barrel missile launcher  
M70 "Hamon" 550mm FAE (Fuel Air Explosive) triple grenade rack  
M71 "Tessis" 64mm triple barrel vulcan gun  
M8080 composite armed shield  
M66 "Canus" short-range missile launcher  
M69 "Barrus" heavy ion cannon  
M68 "Cattus" 500mm recoilless rifle  
M72 "Lupus" beam sniper rifle  
MMI-M8A3 76mm heavy assault machine gun  
MMI-M9A1 133mm battle rifle  
MA-M1 short sword  
MA-M3 heavy sword

Bio: The first Mobile Suit actually used as a weapon system by ZAFT, the ZAMS was meant to be easy to manufacture, modify, and maintain, right from its conception. To facilitate this the design was stripped down to what was thought to be the bare necessities for combat use, then given hard points for storing and carrying weapons and specialized equipment that would later be developed. Perhaps the best feature of the design though was its structural modularity, the ZAMS could detach their arms, legs, heads, movable back verniers, and lower torsos and replace them with new ones in the span of a few minutes. This allowed for major in field repairs to be done very quickly while also giving the ZAMS the ability to be easily modified for specialized purposes, usually acting as a stop gap for MS designed specifically for said purpose.

The ZAMS is often derogatorily referred to as Fat Muthers, more frequently by members of the EA, due to their standard appearance, with a large oval and somewhat rotund looking torso and relatively small spindly arms and legs. Because the ZAMS were originally meant to be used in zero to near zero gravity it was not necessary for their arms, legs, and lower torsos to be too heavily built since they would not frequently need the extra structural support of a unit that would be continually used in gravity.

As a general purpose mass-produced suit, the ZAMS is deployed by ZAFT in space as well as on Earth, and because of the versatility of its design, ZAFT creates many variants based on the basic ZAMS design. These variants include the second most produced variant next to the standard P type, the SO (Surface Operations) type, which has its arms, legs, and lower torsos replaced with more heavily reinforced versions for use in gravity. Along with the AO (Amphibious Operations) type, the AC (Airborne Combat) type, the LRR (Long Range Reconnaissance) type, the HM (High Mobility) type, the HA (Heavy Armor) type, and many more that were later developed by both the Asimov Design Bureau and various independent groups.

After the recovery of the EA's G-units ZAFT all but stopped purchasing the ZAMS from the Asimov Design Bureau due to a mixture of politics and ZAFT's desire to be fully autonomous by doing R&D and the subsequent production of Mobile Suits themselves. Despite this though the ADB continued to produce and develop new equipment for the ZAMS due to the vast expansion of "private" clients beyond ZAFT. The ZAMS (and its many variants) are so widely produced and so successful that many units are salvaged or otherwise acquired by mercenaries, the Junk Guild or private citizens. And for many years to come, continued to be valuable and functional even against the more cutting edge mass production units that were later produced by the Earth sphere's major players.

Designer's Note: the ZAMS looks like the Rk-91/92 Savage from Full Metal Panic and the GINN except with the standard zeonic cycloptic head without that huge idiotic fin on its head, add the GINN's shoulder and skirt armor to it and replace the massive back thrusters with the much smaller ones that the original GuAIZ had and you pretty much have what it looks like also most of the weapons above are from the original GINN

Original Mechanical Designer: Velshard

**ZGMF-604**

_SCAU (Superior Command & Assault Unit)_

Pilot: Rau Le Creuset, Xist Elwes

Unit Type: Commander Type Mobile Suit

Manufacturer: ZAFT Integrated Design Bureau

Operators: ZAFT

Height: 18.6 meters

Weight: 81.9 metric tons

Armor materials: Titanium ceramic composite

Power Source: Ultra Compact Rechargeable Energy Battery

Propulsion: Multiple Plasma Verniers

Operating System: Composite Rapid-Action Program

Special Systems: AMBAC

Equipment and Design Features: 7 x Weapons/Equipment hard point, 2 on each shoulder, forearm, and outside calf, 1 on dorsal skirt armor  
2 x integral storage units, store magazines, energy packs and grenades

Permanent Fixed Armaments: 1 x 2-barrel 20mm CIWS, mounted in head  
2 x 80mm Machine-cannons, mounted in upper torso  
2 x 8-tube multipurpose missile launchers, mounted in back thrusters

Optional Fixed Armaments: M65 "Felis" 8-barrel small missile launcher, mounts on shoulders, forearms, and outside calves; M68 "Pardus" 3 barrel missile launcher, mounts on shoulders, forearms, and outside calves; M70 "Hamon" 550mm FAE (Fuel Air Explosive) triple grenade rack, mounts on shoulders, and forearms (just MS sized hand thrown grenades); M71 "Tessis" 64mm triple barrel vulcan gun, stores 450 rounds, mounts on forearms (essentially a modified version of the CGUE's shield vulcan); M9090 "Ratus" composite armed shield, features 1 x 80mm machine cannon, 1 x 190mm grenade launcher, 1 x fixed slide-out heat blade

Optional Hand Armaments: M72 "Lupus" Ion particle beam sniper rifle (the sniper rifle used by the original LRR GINN); MMI-M9A1 133mm battle rifle, hand carried in use, may be stored on dorsal skirt armor hard point (basically a bigger version of the M8A3 that favors precision and power over rapid fire); MMI-XLM2 "Furia" 130mm experimental linear assault rifle incorporating a heat blade that runs the full length of the weapon from just beyond the tip of the muzzle to the hand guard(based off the M9A1)

Bio: ZAFT's ZGMF-604 SCAU is an improved version of their standard ZGMF-101P ZAMS, that borrows design elements from the already in production AMF-201 IAAMS and is designed for use by commanders and ace pilots such as Rau Le Creuset. The SCAU is the fourth MS produced by ZAFT's privately controlled factories and is at its core a blatant rip off of the Asimov Design Bureau's ZAMS mobile suit. That being said the unit is an excellent suit and its creation was primarily pushed forward by Patrick Zala who wished to make ZAFT un-reliant on the private civilian contractors for mobile suit design and construction. The SCAU was intended to eventually replace the ZAMS as ZAFTs main stay MS; it was also designed with Anti-MS Combat in mind hence it's significantly enhanced overall performance. This plan however, fell through with the revelation of the EA's incredibly advanced G-series, as such production of the SCAU and many other MS all but ground to a halt in an attempt to rapidly incorporate the EA's technology into a completely new standard design. A few SCAUs were used as test beds for the stolen technologies as well as some of ZAFT's own experimental tech, resulting in a number of ultra high performance SCAU-XUs, who's fates and whereabouts are currently unknown.

The SCAU, though based off the ZAMS, is structurally quite different in its standard design, it keeps the ZAMS ability to quickly swap out major components such as its head, back thrusters, arms, and legs but the lower torso is now standardized so that it can easily support the SCAU's weight even in gravity. Since the SCAU ended up having an unexpectedly short production run the unit doesn't have a variety of optional parts only it's standard production parts and a modified version of the AMF-201 IAAMS's back thrusters for limited airborne combat on Earth. The designs only definitive flaw is it's higher than normal energy consumption, though this shouldn't be a problem for a skilled pilot who exercises restraint in the use of the unit's plasma verniers.

Visually, the first noticeable differences between the SCAU and The ZAMS are that the SCAU is definitively taller with a much narrower more stream lined torso. The torso now replaces the ZAMS grenade launchers with a pair of 80mm machine-cannons that are effective against mobile armors and standard MS at mid-short range. It's arms and legs are also more heavily built and streamlined than the ZAMS giving the Production unit naturally higher support capabilities so no modifications would be necessary for the units sent to Earth.

The arms and legs keep their hard points for attaching optional armaments and the shoulder armor has remained the same from the ZAMS but the SCAUs legs no longer contain any plasma verniers in order to cut down on weight. The SCAU's hip armor gives it the illusion that it's wearing a skirt, but the extra long armor flanges actually contain two midsized plasma verniers for increasing its mobility and speed. The upper section of the hip armor now incorporates a storage unit for ordinance as a standard feature but sacrifices the hard points that the ZAMS possesses on its hips.

The back thrusters of the SCAU are easily 5 times the size of the ZAMS's; they contain a new type of plasma vernier and a few control surfaces for short duration atmospheric flight. Unlike the ZAMS the SCAU's thrusters also incorporate two 8-shot multipurpose missile launchers that can fire a number of different warheads, from standard explosives to flare, chaff, and smoke rounds though primarily they fire only standard warheads and signal flares for commanding their subordinates.

The SCAU's most distinctive feature however is its head, though the unit overall has a far more sinister appearance it's the head design, which it borrows from the AMF-102 IAAMS's, that inspired its nickname, Scowler. The head has also been streamlined like most of its other parts but intentionally or not the head now resembles that of a hawk, giving it the appearance that it's perpetually glaring at its targets. The SCAU's head actually has two mono-eyes, one on either side of its head and three small fins coming out of the back of its head for communications and limited electronic warfare capabilities. The final unique feature of the SCAU is that it is perhaps the first production MS to incorporate a CIWS in its design, on top of its head is a pair of fire linked 20mm machine guns on an independent turret that can fire on missiles coming from in front, above, behind and to the left and right of the suit. However due to their smaller caliber this system isn't as effective against anything above the size of a medium warhead missile.

Designer's Note: This unit is the same color as the CGUE and is based off it and many other units. The head looks like the MSN-03 Jagd Doga except with the RMS-099 Rick Dias's CIWS on top and the three small fins coming out of the back of the head. The torso and legs and the skirt armor are my imaginations fusion of the CGUE's and the RMSN-008 Bertigo's from Gundam X but without the camera from the Bertigo in the middle of the chest. The arms are the CGUE's but the shoulders are the same as the ZAMS and the GINN. The back thrusters are almost identical to the ZGMF-1017M GINN High Maneuver Type Except with the missile pods in that green colored bulge on the tops of the thrusters. The M9090 armed shield looks like the MS-07B-3 Gouf Custom from the 8th team, the blade is rather thin and slides straight out of the tip of the shield and the machine cannon is mounted above the grenade launcher inside the shield.

- The Author -

Welp, here it is. By the way, if Velshard's profiles cause your eyes to hurt, be warned: His gundam profiles will cause them to _bleed_ rivers.

A/N 5/7/08: added the Barachiel profile and fixed some errores in the SCAU profile


	5. Phase 03: Intermediate Combat

Gundam Seed: Killer's Realm

Phase 03: Intermediate Combat

- The Killer -

**Lagrange 3, Heliopolis Debris Field  
4:57 P.M. Orb Time**

"Augury, please respond!" There was a slight pause before the same voice screeched out across the radio waves. "Kira Yamato, respond!" In the Augury's cockpit, Kira's reverse-dilated eyes slid across the main monitor to an auxiliary that displayed the Barachiel. The angular object on the bridge, a Phased-Array Radar if he remembered correctly, was scanning the field for him. At that moment, Kira could have done a number of things. He could have drawn a beam pistol and blasted the ship, destroying the Combat Information Center if nothing else.

The Coordinator closed his eyes and took a few deep breaths, before turning the Augury around and nudging the Kiba. The Silver Gundam's head turned slightly, nodded, swiveled to stare in one direction. Turning the Augury's optics in the same way, Kira spotted the fading glares of the Bastion's thrusters. Almost seeming to feel the gaze, the Gundam stopped, turned about and offered a salute to the Augury before continuing, the remains of the ZONGS on its shield throwing the finger up at the White Gundam in an impressive display of control. Either that, or Miguel had little better to do in his cockpit.

Grinning, Kira calmed down, his pupils expanding back to normal size. He made to begin moving the Augury back to the Barachiel, except that a very weak radar signal attracted his attention. Tracing it, he found a large pod.

"What do you have there Kira?" Jack asked, turning the Kiba around when he saw the large object in the Augury's hands.

"It's a shelter. Must have malfunctioned if it's still here." Kira replied, handling the relatively delicate domicile carefully. While most shelters/escape pods these days were drastically similar to ones of the older days – in that they floated in place emitting a beacon – Orb shelters were equipped with high-impulse thrusters, a cheap solar sail, and a large paper battery in order to facilitate quick travel to the nearest safe location. But, in case of damage that incapacitates the shelter, they still have the beacon.

"You know, I just don't see why people would willingly subject themselves to that kind of unknowing fate...I mean really, right now, they don't even now whether you're friend or foe." Jack had previously made his own feelings in regard to shelters clear. As usual, Kira ignored his friend as they used economic pulses of thruster fire to maneuver themselves towards the Barachiel.

**Lagrange 3, Barachiel, 1****st**** Hanger Deck  
Twelve Minutes Later  
**

Climbing out of the Augury's cockpit, Kira saw the mechanics standing around the shelter, fiddling with the circuitry.

"What's wrong?" He called, floating down from the catwalk to land lightly on the deck. The chief engineer, Murdock, if Kira remembered the roster correctly, turned, glancing briefly towards Kira before turning back to the shelter.

"The main control pad fried. I think a beam flashed too close or something...maybe a railgun shell, those things have been known to wipe credit cards at two meters...Anyway, I'm fiddling with the wires to try and get the door open." There was a little sizzle, causing the engineers to jump back, and the hatch, on top of the shelter, opened. A redheaded girl floated out, apparently having been waiting next to the hatch all the time. She floated there for a few moments, getting her bearings before trying to get to the deck. Apparently, she didn't have much experience moving in microgravity, flailing around a bit and managing to spin 197 degrees. Her salvation came in the form of Jack, who snickered as he launched himself from the Kiba's catwalk. Coming up behind her, he gave her a push, propelling himself back to the Kiba and her to the deck. Headfirst. The girl was dazed for a moment before righting herself, carefully moving her limbs. She spotted Kira then, and her face lit up.

"You're one of Sai's friends aren't you!" She floated over to him, struggling slightly as Kira watched her. _She looks familiar...Oh, she's Sai's girlfriend._ Kira's eyes narrowed. Flay Allstar...Daughter of one of the more influential Blue Cosmos members. Sai, Kuzzey, Tolle and Miriallia came into the hanger then, apparently having heard about the shelter pod.

"Flay!" Sai called delightedly.

"Sai!" Flay kicked off the deck, floating up towards Sai, the two embracing as they drew near. Kira coughed, embarrassed as he saw Jack making vomiting motions. The rest of the refugees began flowing out, each coming to terms with the microgravity more quickly than Flay, most having lived on Heliopolis for most their lives. Kira kicked off towards the wall, and bounced off it towards the other door. He'd have to have a talk with Natarle...

– The Crew –

**Cafeteria/Meeting Room/Break Room**

Natarle, on her part, had never met such a passively threatening person as Kira Yamato. On their initial meeting, she'd dismissed him as an average Coordinator student, smart but not really much of a threat. Now though...Even the other officer's seemed to sense it, with even Mu sliding away from the Augury's pilot. Only that Jack person seemed mostly unaffected, grinning mockingly at the group. Liene seemed somewhat resistant.

"So what did you do Kira?" Murrue asked again. The whole command staff of the Barachiel, along with Liene and some of the mechanics, were...asking Kira and Jack exactly what they did and how.

"Well..." Kira was interrupted by Jack almost before he could begin.

"We've been studying how a Mobile Suit would work for a while." Jack said, still grinning at the unease of the OMNI officers. "a bit of professional curiosity you see...Kira was interested in the operating system, while I was more interested in the strictly mechanical things."

"And you managed to _improve_ on Liene's programming with a little research?" Natarle shot back incredulously. Liene coughed a bit, torn between defending his skill and preserving Orb's secrets. He'd been perfectly capable of programming the Gundams for maximum efficiency and power. It's just that Andrew didn't want OMNI to have too good prototypes...

"Coordinators." Jack said simply. This caused all around to nod. Murrue sighed.

"Well...I suppose I'll have to ask...but can you two help us get to the Earth? We can't let you go until we meet with Admiral Halberton, and he clears you..."

"Sure, sure." Jack said, with Kira nodding practically imperceptibly.

Then the intercom buzzed, and Murrue stepped up to it, tapping the button.

"What is it?"

"Um...Captain, you're gonna want to see this for yourself." Sighing, Murrue exited the room, with Natarle and Mu quick on her heels. Kira and Jack followed, curious.

**The Bridge  
**

They stared. It was understandable. Who would logically think that they'd find a bird in space?

"Birdy!" Kira smiled, relieved at seeing his robotic pet. The bird pecked at the pseudo-glass of the bridge view, attempting to get to its master. Kira, Jack and Liene were the only ones who noticed the small slip of paper held inside the robot's beak. Then, before any of them could react, Birdy flew around the bridge, and headed for the airlock.

"What's it doing?" Badgiruel asked sharply. "It doesn't expect you to-" A beep announced the opening of the airlock, and they all stared as the chamber cycled in the atmosphere before opening the door. The bridge crew stared as the machine hopped up into the air and flapped a few times, achieving a great increase in altitude in the microgravity. At the top of its flight, it glided smoothly down, circling Kira's head before landing neatly on his shoulder.

"H-how can it do that!" Natarle demanded, understandably shaken.

"I programmed it with an advanced hacking software so that it could get to me anywhere." Kira supplied, stroking his pet.

The bridge crew, and Mu, stared at the programmer.

- The Killer -

**Pilot's Quarters  
Later**

The two conspirators retrieved the paper from Birdy's beak, opening the note and reading it.

_Kira_

_As soon as possible, contact me. The Vesalius, my ship, will keep barely within sensor range of your ship to your port side._

_Athrun_

"How the fuck, are you supposed to contact him without bringing the lot of OMNI on our heads?" Jack scorned, shaking his head. Kira just smiled.

**Barachiel, Bridge**

**January 26, C.E. 71 1:56 A.M. Orb Time**

Sai yawned, his mouth opening wide. Then, something tapped his shoulder.

"GAT!" he screeched, leaping out of his chair. When he turned, panicked to see who – or what – it was, he saw Kira smiling.

"Gat?" Kira asked, amusement plain. Sai ignored him.

"What are you doing up so late. Or is it early?" Sai asked, still somewhat drowsy.

"I don't need that much sleep." The Coordinator said truthfully. "I figured I'd take over up here for a while." Sai didn't question him, instead bowing and rushing for his bunk.

Kira sat, not in the communications chair, but the sensors station, quickly opening the sensor map. _There it is._ Despite Athrun saying that the Vesalius would stay only barely within sensor range, the Nazca-class warship was well within maximum range, and clearly marked. Kira shrugged for a second, and then started typing. Before he did anything with the sensors, he started manipulating the program that operated the phased array. At a rate of 200 words per second, he rewrote the program, creating a more efficient use of available energy, before creating a code that stored sensor files marked with a specific extension in a databank separate from the central one, accessible only with the proper password. This done, Kira then switched the radar from the acquisition mode to tracking, manipulating the radio waves into a tight beam. Then, he began switching it on and off.

– The Crucible and The Redcoats –

"Commander Le Creuset!" The aide rushed into Rau's room, catching the ace commander at his desk with a bottle of pills in hand. The aide looked shocked for a moment before Rau snapped at him.

"What is it?"

"The Barachiel – it's tracking us!" Rau swore mentally. _How! We're at the bare edge of its projected sensor range!_ They'd tried to guess at the probable range of the ship's sensors by testing the Bastion's own phased array, and extrapolating the probable power of the Barachiel's. _It seems they were holding out on us_. Not two minutes later, Rau stepped onto the Vesalius' bridge. He saw the sensor station crewman looking confusedly at his screen.

"What's going on?" Rau demanded, walking over.

"Well….I don't know. The Barachiel is tracking us, and then not tracking us, and then going back to tracking us. It's quite confusing really, but they haven't fired at us. It could be an intimidation tactic."

"Let me see." Athrun came up from behind Rau, leaning over the crewman's shoulder. The Red brought up the data records, looking it over. Then he smiled. "It's Kira."

"Huh?"

"Morse code." Athrun explained, beginning to translate the code on the computer. About two minutes later, after the Barachiel stopped flashing them, they had the message written out.

_Athrun_

_You might want to back the Vesalius by about sixty kilometers. The crew is going to try and get to Artemis. _

_Kira_

"So that's where they're going." Rau mused. He nodded at the communications officer, who opened a line to the Gamow's captain.

Minutes later, the Bastion launched from the Vesalius, with the Enmity, Noctoraptor, and Ferox launching from the Gamow ten kilometers away.

As the Gundam team approached, Dearka Elsman, the Ferox's pilot, aimed the "Painkiller" beam rifle at the ship, firing several shots off as the Ferox's subarms aimed and fired the "Shredder" linear repeater and the "Big Earl" rocket launcher. The beams struck the port armor, although most of it was dissipated by the laminated armor. The linear rounds were more effective, opening relatively small rents in the armor and exposing a power line. The rocket was intercepted by a laser, prematurely exploding.

"My, my." He said jocularly, "They made this thing tough."

Next to him, the Enmity fired its linear grenade launcher, the magnetic coils launching the explosive at an extremely high speed. The grenade slammed into the armor, creating an enormous dent before exploding, creating a rather large hole.

"Hmph." Yzak Joule grunted. "It's not so tough. We could probably destroy it right now, if it weren't for Athrun…" At that moment, the Bastion sped past, its foot knocking the Enmity in the head as it moved to attack the beam cannons even now swiveling to aim at them. The Ferox almost seem to shrug as smoke began to spread out from its shoulders, concealing its position. When the beams fired, they traveled the distance almost instantly, breaking apart when they reached the cloud.

- The Crew -

In the Barachiel's hanger, the Kiba stepped onto the catapult, crouching in a predatory manner. On the deck below, the Shadowfax's thrusters glowed, Mu firing them up in preparation. The Augury stepped onto the catapult, and arms reached out from compartments, attaching the components of the Angelos pack. To the back was attached the main unit, from which bird-like wings extended. On the leg thrusters, two boosters were attached, as extra thrusters were added to the chest and legs. A limb extended, adhering the EWACS module to the top of the Augury's head. One arm held out the shield, which the Augury grabbed, holding it to the side. With the attachment done, Kira signaled the bridge. The catapults activated, launching the two mobile suits and mobile armor out into space, perpendicular to the approach of the ZAFT-owned Gundams.

The Augury and Bastion sped towards each other, beam rifles targeting. The Kiba made to acquaint itself with the Enmity, Phase Shift Claws activating as the Blue Gundam fired several beams at it. The Shadowfax sped towards the Ferox, which made use of its special targeting systems to lock specific weapons to specific targets. Namely, the Shredder to the Shadowfax, along with the CIWS and Painkiller rifle, and the Big Earl, missiles, and High Explosive Equalizer-fired rounds going for the Barachiel. At this point, Natarle noticed a glaring discrepancy in their information.

"Where the hell is the Noctoraptor!" She demanded. This question was instantly answered by a flash from the starboard side, followed by a large thump sound throughout the ship. Then an explosion destroyed some of the outer armor. "What was that?"

"Ma'am, that appears to have been a bolt from the Noctoraptor's Ballistra sniper rifle, that managed to pierce one of the fuel cells." One of the techs reported.

"Track the angle and fire flechette rockets!" The crew obeyed, using the targeting computer to judge the general area of the Noctoraptor's location before firing the missiles. When they reached the edge of the designated zone, they exploded, shaped charges combined with inertia sending high-temperature flechettes zooming through space. Within the area, the Noctoraptor appeared, coming out of Mirage Colloid stealth to activate it's Phase Shift Armor and shield itself with the twin Trikeros shields.

- The Pilots -

A kilometer away, the Augury and the Bastion dueled. With the Angelos pack, the Augury was far more maneuverable than the comparatively lumbering Bastion, which lived up to its name with the precise and timely placement of its shield. Occasionally, the red-and-blue beam of the Multi-Phase Beam Cannon joined the beams of the rifles, often missing the Augury by dozens of meters as the White Gundam used its new-found mobility to zip around the beams. Unlike before, the two friendly pilots didn't converse, aware now of the horrendously powerful sensors of the Barachiel. This didn't stop them from sending visual cues, such as a twitch of a finger before a beam fired, or a slight shrug of the shoulders before the missiles launched.

The brawl between the Kiba and the Enmity was far less professional, with both pilots screaming at each other over the encrypted radio link. The Enmity had already drawn the Fafnir beam sword, slicing away at the Kiba, which used its low mass and thrusters to avoid each one.

"Graah! Stay still!" Yzak roared, firing the Grendel shotgun, magnetically accelerated flechettes flying at the Kiba's face. With a swipe of the claws, Chimamare cleared most of the normally deadly projectiles, allowing the few remnants to bounce off his armor.

"Why should I!" Chimamare cried, mad grin firmly planted on his face. "It's too fun to watch you scream and cry over your own ineptitude!" The cackle echoed in the Enmity's cockpit, driving Yzak to greater heights of rage-induced thrashing. The next slice practically took off the Kiba's sensor fins, only the timely duck of its head causing the plasma blade to fly over its head. Grin becoming ever wider, Chimamare lashed out with the left Chilong claws, deactivating their Phase Shift for the bare instant it took for them to scratch across the cockpit armor, leaving slight silver streaks. Acting quickly, Yzak released the beam sword, drawing the Beowulf Linear Repeater gun from its holster on the Enmity's right hip, twin barrels revolving as he spooled the weapon up. When the Kiba opened its maw to fire the Nidhoggr, the Enmity's right arm aimed the Beowulf straight into it. The only thing that saved the Kiba from losing its head was Chimamare's split-millisecond reaction, jerking the Kiba's head to the right side as the right claws slashed at the Enmity's arm.

Instead of smashing into the Kiba's head and ruining it beyond repair, the burst of 45mm rounds sped across the battlespace, slamming into the Ferox's torso and knocking Dearka around like a ragdoll. Mu took this chance to fire a flare directly into the Ferox's face, blinding the Gundam. Because of the anti-beam cloud, Mu couldn't use the wire-guided beam gun pods, so he instead fired a long burst from the Shadowfax's own linear repeaters, attempting to knock the Ferox out, into the open where the Barachiel's merciless beams could finish it. Unfortunately, the only thing that burst caused was a reactionary rocket from the Big Earl, guiding itself after the mobile armor. Cursing, Mu pushed the Shadowfax into a dash, before quickly turning it aside and firing another burst from the linear repeaters in its wake. Luckily, one of the rounds struck the rocket, slightly turning it so that instead of hitting the Shadowfax square in the engine, it zoomed past, losing lock and exploding a few kilometers out. Mu still kept running though, avoiding the new barrage of beams, bullets and magnetically accelerated rounds the Ferox fired. Swearing so much that the head of one of those now-defunct religions would've executed him, Mu pulled an Immelmann Turn, using the thrust-vectoring to half-loop the Shadowfax up, before firing a linear repeater barrage at the cloud.

"Everyone, retreat. We've convinced them." Rau ordered, not quite satisfied. Still, the flares exploded, and the OMNI forces allowed his pilots to return, presumably not wanting to risk further damage. At least, in Mu's case. The Ferox, Noctoraptor and Enmity boarded the Gamow, Yzak still shaking, enraged. The Bastion entered the Vesalius' hanger, stepping lightly to its designated bay. When Rau, waiting in the hanger, moved to join Athrun, he was surprised to see a smile on his subordinates face. "What's so amusing?"

"I got more information from Kira."

"How? As I recall, you two didn't exchange any radio communications whatsoever."

"It was relayed in the attack pattern Kira used, based on one I made when we went to school together." Rau was almost too surprised to comment.

"What's the information?" Athrun grinned.

"Artemis' defenses, and how to get through."

– The Author –

Alright, short chapter cause I want to get through the drama of Artemis all in one chunk. Man, you Dark Kira enthusiasts (If any exist) are gonna love the next bit...

Full profiles on the Ferox, Noctoraptor and Enmity to come with the Berial profile.

G. Wagers: I'm actually not sure how I'm going to do the Lacus/Kira thing. Maybe as a sort of Lacus hoping to redeem Kira thing...I dunno, but i plan on some special moments concerning the Jack, Liene and the love lives of both Athrun and Kira.

nequam-tenshi: Sorry, Flay exists. however, Don't think she'll be having a good time...As for the mobile suits, it wasn't just me...although on my part, I draw from a wide amount of science fiction novels, movies, etc. Think of it like a blender, throwing in well established ingrediants along with strange-looking spices from my own cabinet.


	6. Phase 04: Torn Parasol

Phase 04: Torn Parasol

Artemis. The most useless military fortress in current existence, the only plausible reason for its inception being to keep an eye on Heliopolis. Thus, it was mainly a political posting, for those lazy and indolent officers who rose up the ranks by kissing the ass of those better than them. A result of this was the waste of an extremely expensive and powerful system, the lightwave barrier. Made by spreading plasma and photons in a shield, vaporising physical ordnance and repelling beam-based projectiles, the 'Umbrella of Artemis' is the most potent defensive system in existence. Unknown to the officers manning this waste of space and time, Artemis was about to be host to a very powerful guest...fatally so.

– The Killer and The Ace –

**Lagrange 3, Barachiel, Aft Firing Range**

**January 26th, 71 C.E. 12:39 P.M. Orb Time.**

"Kira!" The pilot looked up, seeing Mu coming towards him.

"Mu-san?"

"Do you know how to shoot?"

"Erm..."

"What are you doing here then?" The honest answer to that question would be that Kira was trying to insert a few wiretaps into the camera system, but he really couldn't let Mu know.

"Uh...I was...making a few changes to Birdy's programming!" Kira stuttered, stroking the robot. Mu raised his eyes, and then shook his head.

"You wanna learn how to shoot?"

"Sure!" Kira said, grinning falsely. Mu shook his head and gestured for Kira to follow him. He supposed teens and their magazines were just like that...heck, he had been.

At the firing range, Mu started Kira's fourth lesson on how to shoot a gun. Not that he knew.

"Alright, this is an OHG-3, the third model of OMNI's official handgun. It fires 10mm caseless rounds, twelve per clip." Despite this, it still looked like a pre-Reconstruction War Beretta. "Alright, let's start you off with the basic firing stance. Hold the gun in both hands. Good. Now, face the target, and inhale. Now-" The lesson was interrupted by what sounded like a panicked and terrified scream, growing in volume as Jack burst through the door.

"NOOOO!" The screaming pilot tore the OHG-3 from Kira's hand, dismantled it, and began going over it with oil and sandpaper, scrubbing each part with meticulous focus. When he got to the clip, he ejected the bullets and sprayed something in it, then polished the bullets. When all was done, the gun shone extremely shiny silver.

"What...the...fuck?" Mu asked, dumbfounded. Jack turned on him with a fury.

"You...never...ever...give Kira a gun and tell him to fire it! Not unless it comes with computerized sights and a targeting system!" Jack screeched. The robotics expert was waving the gun around dangerously, noticeably without the safety off.

"Now Jack...let's all calm down...Kira should learn how to fire a gu-"

"That's the point! He should, but he doesn't! And shouldn't attempt to learn!"

"Why not?"

"Why not? WHY NOT! I'll tell you why not!"

**Flashback, Anonymous Firing Range**

**C.E. 67**

The two twelve-year olds were standing in a firing range, with a former sergeant of the Orb military teaching them how to fire a gun. Despite said sergeant's doubts, the orders did come from the Chief Representative.

"Alright, now...inhale deeply; exhale half of the breath, and fire!" The two boys did as ordered. Jack's bullet flew straight...into the very outer ring of the bullseye. Kira's bullet hit the wall, rebounded off the ceiling, the floor, and then the far wall, and then behind the back wall next to the door and at Jack.

"MY ASS!"

**Present**

"Right in the left cheek..." Jack whispered, massaging said buttock as he remembered.

"Okay, but one single accident..."

"SINGLE!"

**Flashback, Other Anonymous Firing Range**

**C.E. 68**

A year after the previous 'friendly fire' incident, Uzumi had decided to have them go another time. This time though, they were using assault rifles. The same sergeant stood, this time far from the two.

"Alright, you remember last time..."

The two took a deep breath, raised the rifles to their shoulders, and exhaled slightly. Then, they fired. Jack's short burst sprayed all over the outer rings of the target. Kira's long burst, however, sprayed around the target, ricocheting of at right angles into the surrounding walls, the floor, and the ceiling, before rebounding off the back wall and into both Jack and the sergeant's legs.

"FUCKING HELL!"

"GODDAMN FUCKING CRAP!"

**Present**

"Three months of intensive surgery...nanomachine treatments...it was horrifying..."

Before Mu could open his mouth, Jack continued.

"And then! The worst one of all..."

**Flashback, Empty Forest**

**C.E. 69**

The sergeant had quit after the last incident, so Uzumi was instead asking his daughter, Cagalli, to tutor the two. The Princess of Orb was dressed in several layers of anti-shrapnel body armor, and then stuffed into an archaic suit of titanium-reinforced Samurai armor. After giving them some tips, she hid behind a wall of aluminum-steel alloy. As before, they inhaled, exhaled, brought the bolt-action rifles to their shoulders, and fired. Jack hit the bullseye. Kira's round hit a tree at an oblique, altering it's' course slightly, hitting others at the same extreme angle, before ricocheting off the wall and into a...certain spot.

"AAAGGGHGHAAGGHAAAAAAFUCK!"

**Present**

"I have to admit Kira, he does make a convincing point." Mu said, while Jack exited the room.

"He's just paranoid." Kira said, picking up the gun and shooting at the target. As with the very first incident, the bullet bounced off of the wall, the ceiling, the floor, and then the far wall, with it traveling through the opening door, past Liene's face, and off of the hallway wall, straight at Jack.

"MY ASS!"

Mu and Kira poked their heads into the hallway, and then retreated back into the range.

"Alright...maybe you should give the gun to me..."

– The Madman –

**Lagrange 3, 750 kilometers from Asteroid Fortress Artemis**

**2:56 P.M. Orb Time**

Chimamare shifted uncomfortably, trying to find a distribution of weight that didn't hurt his rear. He'd laughed in Jack's head at his misfortune...but now the alter was feeling it too. He wished Le Creuset could've waited before staging another fake attack..._Whoops! I really should stop thinking..._ The Kiba had just barely dodged a beam from the Enmity, piloted by a vengeful Yzak.

"Fucking stand still!" The silver-haired Coordinator snarled, firing a barrage of missiles. Chimamare yawned, making sure it was loud enough to be transmitted by the earpiece, and fired the CIWS guns in short bursts, destroying the missiles before they so much as inched towards him. The alter then had the Kiba detach its left claw, before grabbing the beam rifle holstered on its back waist and snapping of a trio of shots past the Enmity's cameras. The beams streaked by, temporarily blinding the Gundam and reminding Joule just who he was fighting. Grinning, Chimamare pushed the Kiba into a somersault, feeding just enough power into the thrusters to move the Gundam slightly forward as it began the second revolution. As a result, the Kiba's feet kicked straight into the Enmity's crotch, throwing the Blue Gundam up. As well as sparking a series of cursing as Yzak got the insult. This caused Chimamare to laugh mockingly, which started off another round of swearing, in a feedback loop. The shield came up, shotgun firing three times, a spread of flechettes blazing outwards. Chimamare ignored them, instead dodging the follow-up barrage of beams and the grenade. The alter wasn't surprised when the Enmity threw away its rifle, whipping out the beam sword and slicing away like a butcher. The reaction to this was simple, the Kiba's thrusters flaring bright as Chimamare boosted the mobile suit above the other, CIWS firing insultingly at the Enmity's face. Roaring, Yzak sliced the sword up, attempting to at least cut off one of the legs or something to that extent. The Kiba just backed away, faceplate opening.

"IM CHARGIN MAH LAYZER!" Chimamare screamed, cackling insanely.

_'Actually, it's an Ion Beam weapon'_ Jack said, deep from the corner of his mind. _'Instead of firing a concentrated beam of photons, it fires a compressed beam of plasma at the speed of light, and while they may seem simi-'_

_'Oh shut up!'_ Chimamare snapped. The particulars of the cannon were of no concern to him, just the destruction it caused. Which was rather small, the beam flashing past the Enmity's torso to hit a small and lonely meteoroid.

– The Killer –

Closer to the Vesalius than the Barachiel, Kira battled for his life against the Bastion and the Noctoraptor. Or, at least, he seemed to. In reality, it was only mildly difficult. If they were going at it seriously, Kira might have had some concern, but right now it was about as hard as to avoid their shots as it was to avoid a fat, lazy, sick old man's punches. The real hard part was intentionally missing them by mere centimeters, as the Augury's targeting program was most certainly not meant to miss.

A flicker on the radar screen caused Kira to throw the Augury back, the chest-based thrusters going at full power to avoid the Ballistra bolt. Had that thing contacted the Augury directly, it would have drained almost all of the Gundam's power, and even then the mere force of the impact would've probably squashed Kira. The Gundam pilot retaliated with a missile launch, reinforcing the image of a rookie as the missiles targeting lock flickered on and off against the combination of the Bastion's EWACS jamming and the Noctoraptor's own natural stealth. They completely lost it when the Black Gundam faded, Mirage Colloid seeming to devour the mobile suit.

Another flicker preceded the glow of a Multi-Phase beam, missing the Augury by a meter. Ignoring the missed shot, Kira instead fed more power to the EWACS, attempting to overpower the Noctoraptor's stealth. The attempt failed dismally, only the charge glow from the Noctoraptor's 57mm Shield Carbines allowing Kira to dodge the flurry of beams. The Augury charged the Noctoraptor, holding the shield before it. Before Nicol could respond, Kira released the shield and reversed the Augury's direction, resulting in the bulky piece of equipment slamming into the Noctoraptor's torso. Using carefully controlled thrust, Kira spun the Augury counterclockwise 90 degrees, left arm drawing and aiming a Dylandy beam pistol at the Bastion, firing two shots - what most gunslingers would call a double-tap, streaking to either side of the Bastion's head. The command-type unit holstered its rifle, and released its shield, drawing the Tonbogiri with its right hand as the Beam Claw on the left flared into existence. In response, the Augury holstered both rifle and pistol, drawing the beam sabers. The Bastion charged, Tonbogiri slicing in one-handed. The Augury's beam saber met the head of the pole-arm, intercepting it as the other saber sliced towards the Bastion's torso. The beam claw blocked it, followed up by the Bastion's forceful kick, propelling the Augury back. The Noctoraptor came back out of stealth, its SAMBAC system allowing it to practically dance around the Augury as its Aculeus pile driver came stabbing in. The heat-blade shaved against the Augury's side torso armor, cutting a shallow groove as Kira's slight use of thrusters moved the Augury to the side. Sheathing its beam sabers, the White Gundam flipped over, grabbing its shield, drawing its beam rifle, and facing the Noctoraptor and Bastion again.

– The Redcoat and The Ace –

"Feh, you're persistent, but I've come to expect that from Naturals!" Dearka cajoled, locking CIWS and other such projectile weapons onto the Shadowfax as the bigger, heavier guns attempted to lock onto the Barachiel. However, the crew appeared to have gotten their act together, and the jamming was seriously screwing with the Redcoat's aim. The mobile armor's interference didn't help, with Dearka having to dodge beams shot from four different directions simultaneously, and the linear repeaters jarring his aim. Somewhat annoyed, Dearka aimed the Ferox's Blooker shield, firing off three rockets from the built-in rocket launcher. The rockets streaked along, crossing the Shadowfax's path and causing Mu to weave in and around them. The Hornet missile launcher fired of a barrage of missiles, each locking onto the large thermal signature of the Shadowfax.

"Note to self: replace repeaters with CIWS." Mu muttered, pulling all kinds of crazy stunts to shake the missiles. A beam flashed by, followed by several more as the Ferox took affront to the fact that the mobile armor still wasn't floating pieces of scrap.

"Kira, Jack, Mu, return now! We're making the final sprint to Artemis!" Miriallia spoke into the mike. She, along with a large part of Kira's friends, had decided to help the rather overworked crew. Sai, in particular, had been rather helpful. At the moment, he was dealing with the Ferox's persistent lock on the Barachiel. Miriallia sighed with relief as the three, with some minor difficulty, broke off from their fights to come sprinting back into the hangers. The next moment, the Barachiel's guns stilled and stored themselves away as power was shunted from the weapons into the thrusters. The cease of fire caused the ZAFT units to pause, watching warily in case the OMNI officers decided to crush a few ants with a sledgehammer in the form of a main gun shot. Instead, they were surprised when the assault carrier surged forward, achieving an impressive speed of 1000 kilometers per hour.

"Uhhhh...what the hell?" Dearka summed up their thoughts.

"How long left?" Murrue asked the helmsman.

"About 50 minutes, assuming we slow down halfway so that we can stop when we arrive." He replied, carefully guiding the Barachiel according to solar charts. A misjudgment at this distance could cause them to end up an hour's worth of travel time to the side.

– The Crucible –

**Vesalius, Bridge**

Rau looked out, staring at the rapidly accelerating Barachiel. The sliding door announced Athrun's entrance, causing Rau to turn.

"The operation was, again, a success sir." Athrun said.

"Indeed. We should hope that the others can do as well without us." Rau said. Athrun started, surprised. "We've been called back to the PLANTS. They want to study the Bastion more closely, and we're to submit a full report to the council." Athrun started to argue, before subsiding into a quiet resignation.

– The Crew –

**Lagrange 3, Barachiel, 5 kilometers from Artemis**

**3:34 P.M. Orb Time**

Sai grinned at the helmsman, satisfied.

"You were off, and badly at that." Grumbling, the helmsman handed over the money, about half his paycheck. Miriallia, on the other hand, was staring wide-eyed out the bridge view.

"What is THAT!" She asked, pointing at the large cylindrical structure practically the size of Artemis itself.

"That, is the Paimon, one of the dozen or so Berial-class ships that were deployed at the start of the war." Murrue whispered, eyes shrouded. Noticing her discomfort, Miriallia turned to one of the other crewman.

"The Paimon was one of the Berials assigned to the Lunar Defense Fleet." he explained. "It was taken out by Rau Le Creuset."

"The same guy who's chasing us?" Miriallia asked.

"Yep. He did the craziest thing: He flew _into_ the Paimon's main gun, a HALC like the one we've got, and shot the capacitors. The explosion caused the nuclear reactor to rupture, and chain-react. He took out a sixth of the fleet with that shot." The crewman peered out the view, studying the Paimon's remains. "I think the Eurasians towed the wreck out here, and ripped out the nuclear reactor. Looks like they put a lot of solar panels on it, and ripped out some of the secondary guns."

Miriallia stared at the ominous hulk, shuddering as she imagined it at its prime. An enormous ship, mobile armors flooding from its docks as enormous linear cannons and beam cannons fired, with the smaller flashes of CIWS guns interspersed, as the HALC fired a single devastating shot.

"Why do that? Why not repair it, and use it in the war?"

"The Neutron Jammers. The Berials were originally powered by large-scale, high-power nuclear fission reactors. When the Jammers went into effect, their reactors shut down, and the Berials became little more than enormous metal asteroids." Miriallia shuddered again, as the Barachiel passed the Paimon's remains, entering Artemis' port.

– The Killer and The Madman –

**Barachiel, Kira and Jack's Quarters**

"You think you can control yourself?" Jack asked, watching his friend closely.

"Yes Jack, I can handle myself. I haven't killed anyone here have I?" Kira replied tersely.

"Barely. I saw you with the balisong, eying Natarle." Kira's only reply was to stare balefully at the ebon-haired Coordinator.

"Kira, Jack, Murrue wants you two to come along." Miriallia's voice called out, causing both of the pilots to glance up before leaving.

A five-minute jog later, Kira and Jack met Murrue, Natarle, and Mu at the starboard aft airlock.

"What's the matter?" Kira asked Ramius, the captain looking somewhat concerned.

"I don't know. They specifically asked for the pilots of the Augury and the Kiba." She answered, somewhat perturbed as they saw the guards and officials walking across the catwalk. The airlock hissed, opening as the five stepped out. They did not expect the guards to raise their weapons, which Jack noted to be the new OAC-5 (OMNI Assault Carbine), and aim them at the Barachiel crew.

"What the- what is the meaning of this?" Natarle blustered, shocked.

"Murrue Ramius, Natarle Badgiruel, and Mu La Flaga. You and your crew are under arrest for aiding a national criminal." Said one official, stepping up from behind the guards. "And you, Kira Yamato, the criminal, are under arrest for the murder of Colonel Joseph Abaddon and his retinue." Kira stared at the man, overwhelmed. "I am Vice Admiral Edward Abaddon."

**Artemis, Brig**

**5:46 P.M. Orb Time**

Kira stared straight ahead, studying the guards from head-to-toe for the hundredth time, noting every piece of body armor, their weapons, their sidearm, the placement of every spare clip, and whatnot. As far as he knew, the rest of the Barachiel's crew had been confined on the ship, guarded by at least a platoon of Abaddon's personal guards. He glanced over at Jack, who nodded, eyes closed to mere slits. Kira acted quickly, face falling into an emotionless mask and pupils dilating, he snapped the hand-cuffs they'd restrained him with, drawing the balisong, still in its hidden sheath. He popped the handle latch, blade flicking out as he sliced at the prison bars. The balisong was a custom-made one, ordered by Uzumi for Kira. It was made mostly out of titanium, with leather-wrapped handles. The thirty-centimeter double-edged blade was titanium as well, except for the edge. The edge was a monomolecular compressed diamond, capable of cutting through all infantry-grade armor and most known materials as well.

Two quick slices opened a large hole in the bars, and before the guard could react, Kira sliced through both lungs, before moving around and slitting his throat. Two steps brought the Coordinator to the second guard, slicing through the barrel of his carbine before cutting deep enough into his neck to sever his spinal cord. Moving quickly, Kira sliced the locks of each cell, releasing the astonished Murrue, Natarle and Mu, as well as Chimamare, and then cutting off their cuffs. The alter walked to the first guard, stripping him of his armor and weapons, tossing the handgun to Kira. Behind them, the three former OMNI officers stared, stunned.

"What the – How the…Gah." Murrue stuttered, obviously rather shocked by the sudden display.

"I'd suggest you wait until we get back to the ship." Kira ordered coldly, throwing the second guard's handgun and spare clips to Mu. The officers did so and silently followed the two teenagers, Kira in front and Chimamare behind him.

– The Redcoats –

**Artemis, Outside the Umbrella**

Nicol breathed in deeply, and then exhaled. This was going to be his first time assaulting a fortress...even one as minor as Artemis. He, Yzak and Dearka had stared at the Paimon, before shaking themselves. They had to be ready in case the signal was sent. In the event that it was, Nicol had come up with a plan. And seeing as the signal had, indeed, been sent, Nicol was now maneuvering the Noctoraptor under its Mirage Colloid cloak past the 1, 500 meter long warship bristling with enough weaponry to annihilate him in an instant, similar to how a man with a machine gun would kill a fly. The Redcoat breathed easier once he was past the Berial-class warship, and moved a bit faster, heading right for the lightwave emitters.

– The Killer, The Madman, and The Crew –

**Artemis, just outside the Barachiel's dock**

In order to express themselves fully, the three former OMNI officers would require the use of a megaphone, several dozen graph sheets, a knife, a chainsaw, and several cases of alcoholic beverages. In Kira and Chimamare's wake, they had passed scores of bloody, broken corpses, missing legs, arms, head, and more often than not showing evidence that they had more-or-less contributed to the organ-mush that now soaked into their shoes.

At the moment, Kira and Chimamare were crouching on either side of the door to the docks, balisong and pistol and assault carbine ready. At a nod from Kira, Chimamare quickly armed two grenades, waited a moment, and then tossed them, one after another, through the now open door. The first, a flashbang, erupted in brilliant white light and eardrum shattering noise. The second, a fragmentation, exploded while the occupants of the room were attempting to regain their lost sight and hearing, spraying hot fragments of steel all over. The two Coordinators rushed out then, shooting at targets and heading for the Barachiel's airlock, Mu, Murrue and Natarle hot on their heels. When they reached the hull, Kira and Chimamare spun around, backs hitting the hull. Chimamare flipped his carbine to single-shot, aiming and firing at the scattered guards left alive. Kira, on his part, barely looked at his targets as he knocked on the airlock door.

"Wha-What the fuck was that about?" Mu asked. "They're not going to open the do-" The hissing sound interrupted him as the airlock opened to reveal Birdy. Mu could swear the robot bobbed smugly when it ascended to Kira's shoulder. Moving through the bridge, Kira and Chimamare left the officers to start up the ship, moving to free the crew and refugees.

Fifteen minutes later, the deed was done, with at least ten OMNI soldiers having fallen to the effective combination of Kira and Chimamare. The crew exited the cafeteria, where they'd been held, all of them skirting around the Coordinators, not wanting to antagonize them. The two just looked at each other and shook their heads, before heading to the first hanger deck.

– The Recoats –

**Artemis, Outside the Umbrella**

Yzak snorted, watching Nicol easily penetrate the supposedly invincible Artemis. Explosions played out along the surface, showing where his cowardly comrade destroyed emitters, dock entrances, defenses, and all the other crap this shithole had.

"Ready Dearka?"

"Naturally." The Coordinator joked. The Ferox was position to the starboard side of the Paimon, where the greatest amount of firepower was concentrated, judging by the hastily covered holes on the port side. It was also the one with the most targets. Dearka started up the Alpha Strike system. The targeting systems automatically locked onto the Paimon, highlighting parts, weapons, engines, and energy-generation systems. Smirking, Dearka selected the energy systems, and let loose. Linear rounds, HE projectiles, rockets, missiles, and beams reached across the kilometer or so distance to impact on the Paimon's already ravaged hull, completely wiping out the solar panels and some of the weapons they were built around. With that done, the Ferox's aim shifted to the weapons, ensuring that the Paimon was, and would forever remain, a shattered corpse from which only scavengers would profit. The Enmity, meanwhile, joined the Noctoraptor as they headed towards the main hanger.

– The Killer –

**Barachiel, 1st Hanger Deck**

Kira climbed into the Augury, ignoring the nervous stares of the mechanics as they ran around the deck, restarting systems and readying them for launch. Across the way, Kira saw Chimamare grin, looking like some feral predator who'd just found a crippled animal. Strapping himself in, Kira walked the Augury to the port catapult, as the equipment arms reached out with the Juggernaut pack's parts.

"Kira? What's going on? H-how did you-"

"Like I said to Miss Ramius, Miriallia...let's wait until we get out of here." The next instant, the catapult's magnetic rails propelled the Augury into the dock, cannons forward and Gatlings spooling up. The Kiba launched from the starboard catapult, claws extended and faceplate slightly open, making it seem to snarl at the mobile armors moving to engage them.

The Augury opened up with the Gatling guns, chewing apart a dozen of the Moebius armors confronting him. Swinging the left hand cannon up, Kira fired the linear barrel, the projectile speeding through several armors before penetrating the bridge of a Nelson-class ship, rendering it useless. Aiming the right-hand weapon, the Hyper-Impulse Cannon spat a stream of blue plasma, disintegrating the Moebius in its path as it destroyed the docks door. Through the floating debris and melted alloys, the Noctoraptor and Enmity flew in, weapons firing and destroying much of the surrounding docks. When the ZAFT Gundams shot at the Augury, Kira returned fire. The Enmity's burst of linear rounds destroyed a Moebius, while the Noctoraptor's Ballistra bolt penetrated a threatening Agamemnon ship. The Juggernaut's HEAP (High-Explosive, Armor-Piercing) missiles annihilated the emerging turrets in the walls. The trio shared a nod, before going off on their runs of destruction, at least, until a clawed-out Moebius struck the Enmity full in the face. Yzak swiveled his Gundam around to stare at the Kiba, which waved at him before launching itself at an approaching platoon of mobile armors.

– The Destroyer –

**Artemis, Central Command**

"What the fuck is going on!" the current ranking officer on Artemis spat, staring at the wall-sized viewscreen in disbelief, anger and sheer terror.

"Sir! It would appear that we were attacked from the outside by a single mobile suit." The officer stared. "Said mobile suit snuck through our defenses and destroyed the lightwave barrier emitters. It was followed by two more mobile suits, which we did detect, one of which stayed to destroy the Paimon, the other following the original suit inside, where they have now joined the Augury and Kiba in annihilating our forces."

Edward Abaddon, standing next to the officer, seemed calm and in control. In reality, he was seconds away from ordering the lot of incompetent fools out. _Joseph...It looks like you'll have to wait a little longer before you meet your killer again_. Shaking himself out of his bitter thought, Abaddon retrieved his personal communicator – one of the OMNI Intelligence Agency's new triple-function, encrypted handheld units – and contacted his XO.

"Jürgen, get the Grigori over here. It's time for me to leave this junk-heap." The Vice-Admiral slipped out of the room without any of its panicking occupants noticing.

– The Killer and The Redcaots –

**Artemis, Barachiel's Dock**

The slaughter of the Artemis forces was nearing completion, especially with the Ferox lending its fire support out on the Fortresses' surface, destroying Nelson and Agamemnon-class ships approaching from other docks before their cannons ever got clear. Most of their mobile armors never got the chance to launch, and those that did were rapidly destroyed by Shredder fire and missiles.

Inside, the Augury's cannons fired a volley at a horde of armor coming up from behind the slowly moving Barachiel. The barrage of Hyper-Impulse beams, Linear Cannon rounds, Gatling Gun bullets, and HEAP missiles summarily vaporized them, with the Kiba's afterthought Ion Beam clearing a few of the survivors. With that done, the four Gundams flew alongside the Barachiel, watching as the assault carrier turned its main gun on the Paimon.

"Hold up." Dearka protested. "I've already scraped that thing clean of any wea-" He was interrupted by the flare of the Paimon's main gun, firing at the Gamow. The enormous slug struck the Laurasia-class a glancing blow, scraping away the catapult. The Barachiel's Positron Cannon glowed for an instant, before the magnetic fields fired the compressed bolt of anti-matter plasma at the Paimon, striking the Berial-Class in the center and initiating an annihilation reaction that left the extreme fore and aft section of the ship intact.

After setting their jaws back in proper position, the Redcoats boarded the Barachiel, on Kira's insistence.

– The Crucible –

**Lagrange 5, Aprilius One**

**January 27th, 71 C.E., 12:09 Orb Time**

"You WHAT!" Patrick Zala shouted, in front of the council members, at both Rau Le Creuset and his son. For the past nine minutes, Athrun and Rau had briefed the Supreme Council on everything, the attack on Heliopolis, the Gundams, and the assault on Artemis. As well as the small, insignificant detail that had only been decided an hour before the brief.

Namely, the temporary assistance of the Le Creuset team to the now-renegade Barachiel

– The Author –

A/N: As you can probably tell, I have severe problems remembering the name of the average bridge crewman of the Archangel, who now crew the Barachiel. If anyone could supply a list of names and posts, I'd be grateful

Thawn716: That could work. And while Artemis isn't actually scrap, there ain't gonna be no one living there anymore. Not for long.

nxkris: well...its...similar to...the Freedom...kinda...somewhat...yeah.

Blaid: Thank you, I hope this phase has provided similar, enjoyable combat.

To explain the seeming contradictory notions of Kira first using guns, and seemingly having no skill, allow me to explain.

In Seed mode, Kira automatically computes so many variables that his brain is an organic targeting computer, allowing him to easily use a gun well. This applies to his piloting too, as we all have seen. Also, it was too amusing to pass up.

Now, to work on the Bastion...


	7. Omake: Plan for the Future

Omake: Plan for the Future

"Excuse me?" Kira gaped. He couldn't imagine anyone, even this guy, asking that question.

"You heard me." K'GoN said impatiently. "What's your zombie plan?" The Gundam pilot stared blankly at the little robot, The monstrosity, a combination of the RX-78-2 Gundam and the Shinkirou Knightmare frame, had a grotesque face, seemingly made so that this author cannot describe it accurately enough to convey its disgusting horridness. "See, there are two types of people: The ones prepared for when zombie's take over the world, and those who aren't. We call the latter food."

"Oh come on! No one thinks about stuff like that!" The Ultimate Coordinator protested.

"ORLY!!??" K'GoN screeched. Swiftly turning, the robot pointed at the first person it saw. "Suzaku! What's your zombie plan!?"

"I'm going to spin-kick them. Many times, again and again and again, until my constant spin-kicking generates enough lift to allow me to fly to Alaska." The Japanese Knight replied, looking smug. Kira protested this.

"Oh come on! This is Suzaku we're talking about! He's been so twisted from his paranoia that he's come up with a plan for almost every eventuality.!" K'GoN was prepared for this as well.

"Lelouch!" The strategist looked up from the chess game he was playing (and winning) against Light Yagami, the Death Note user looking desperate.

"I am going to bring enough nobles into debt with me to fund the development of a virus that will allow me to control the zombies, saving me, while at the same time giving me the most invincible army known to man!" Ending with a crazed-sounding laugh, Lelouch returned to his game as Light clutched at his Death Note desperately, the stake he had bet in this match.

"We all _know_ Lelouch is crazy!" Kira denied.

"Setsuna, Sousuke, and Heero!" the three militaristic mecha pilots formed up in parade rest, belting out their plan at the exact same time as each other.

"We will establish a base of operations, supplying it with enough ammunition, fuel and other such necessities for an extended period of isolation. Then, at a later date when we have used our flight-capable Arm Slaves and Gundams to round up a large percentage of the survivors, we will lead a series of rebellions against the invasive undead presence." Finished, they all snapped to attention, saluted, and marched off.

"Otaku." Kira dead-panned. Then K'GoN grinned, a grin so satisfied and cat-got-the-canary-like that Kira sweated.

"Athrun Zala." Bewildered, Kira whirled to face his best friend and fellow pilot. Grinning sheepishly, Athrun muttered his own plan.

"Well, I figured we could contain the zombies ourselves Kira....After all, there could be a mobile suit zombie virus......" Kira just stood there, disbelief plain upon his face. Then, he turned to K'GoN.

"Well then, what's yours?"

"Me? I don't have one." Just as Kira started to digest that, K'GoN continued.

"I have fifty-six!" The machine declared triumphantly.

00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

A/N: Wow. Talk about preparation. ("Don't be, meatbag. In half of them, I use your rotting carcass as bait while I flee to safety. By the way, what's yours?") I'm not saying it out loud! Or typing it. What if the people reading this get infected? ("......Shit")

Anyway, enough of the funny stuff.

So, strangest thing happened at school today. I was working on Phase 5 during lunch, saved onto my flashdrive when lunch was over, and when I got home, it wasn't there. The file was there, but there was no text whatsoever. So, instead, I rewrote this Omake that I planned to use back when I was writing Meaning of Zero.

Anyone who guesses where I got the idea from, kudos.

Oh, happy birthday to me.

Knightmare Gundam of Ni


	8. Phase 05, Part 1: Prelude

Gundam Seed: Killer's Realm

Phase 05, Part 1: Pop Stars and All Stars, Prelude

**Lagrange 5, Aprilius One, ZAFT Base Apartment**

**January 27th****, 71 C.E., 1:36 P.M. Orb Time**

In the apartment, the sound of a running shower echoed, as Athrun washed off the sweat that had accumulated on his skin during the last half of the briefing. Despite the fact that Patrick Zala was his father, the man was absolutely terrifying at times, mainly due to his charismatic nature.

He hadn't exactly been pleased with the supposed defection of the Barachiel and her crew. After Rau had revealed that he and Athrun were going to join Yzak, Dearka and Nicol at the ship, he'd practically exploded.

Chairman Clyne, however, had fully supported the venture.

Stepping out of the shower, Athrun briefly toweled himself off before grabbing a bathrobe and heading for the small television on his desk. _Maybe OMNI's released news of Artemis' destruction….if nothing else, it'll be interesting to see the spin Blue Cosmos put on it…._ Instead of an amusingly falsified report of why Artemis was little more than a hollow shell, Athrun's eyes widened as the current news report played.

_Lacus is missing!_

0000000000000000000000000000000000000000 -- Quis est a Iuguolo nisi a Iuguolo? – 00000000000000000000000000000000000000

**Between Lagrange 3 and Earth, Barachiel, 1****st**** Hanger Deck**

**January 4****th****, 71 C.E., 10:09 A.M. Orb Time**

"What the hell are you doing?" Yzak demanded of the jean-clothed legs sticking out of the Enmity's cockpit.

"I am running a diagnostic to figure out just how much damage you have done to my mobile suit. Unfortunately for me, the only port I can hook my computer up to was placed under the chair. Last time I let an OMNI engineer in on a project…" the person trailed off, becoming more interested in something that most definitely was _not_ on the original schematics. Yzak, meanwhile, sputtered, outraged. _HIS MOBILE SUIT!!?? HOW THE HELL IS IT HIS?!!"_ The Redcoat was about to ask the question, when the person interrupted.

"What the hell is this?" He said, rolling out from under the seat to point at the screen of his computer. Shown there was a section of the Enmity's V-fin, a certain part highlighted.

"I-it's a tachyon signaler. It allows us to use the Network to-"

"DO YOU KNOW WHAT YOUR DAMNED ENGINEER'S DID!!" Liene roared, his voice echoing and causing the other Redcoats to look up from their own mobile suit. "BY PUTTING YOUR FUCKING SIGNALER THERE, YOU CAUSED AN ELECTRICAL FEEDBACK LOOP THAT PRETTY MUCH FRIED THE RADAR!!!!" Yzak frowned, both scared and confused. His radar had been working fine….by ZAFT standards.

Which, according to Liene, were apparently far too lax. Grumbling, the engineer called out to the head mechanic. "Hey! Can you guys help me out here? ZAFT screwed up the Enmity, and we need to replace the radar unit." Yzak, dumbstruck, just stood there. Over on the catwalks by the Ferox and the Noctoraptor, Dearka leaned over to Nicol.

"I think we shouldn't get in his way." He whispered, nodding towards Liene.

**Barachiel, Cafeteria/Meeting Room/Break Room**

**10:21 A.M. Orb Time**

The situation was….uncomfortable. Kira was sitting in a chair with the back against the far wall. Before him was arrayed most of the bridge crew, as well as most of his friends from Heliopolis. A slight concern was the array of weaponry aimed at various parts of his anatomy (both Flay and Natarle were aiming at a particularly sensitive spot).

"Alright…" Kira started. "What's this about?" Murrue replied.

"You've been stalling since we left Artemis. We want answers."

"Alright, what?"

"First, are you really the Killer Child, from that footage that Blue Cosmos spread around?"

"Yes."

"Why are you here?"

"Reclamation and protection of Orb Property, including, but not limited to, this ship, and the Gundams. I've been operating with permission from Lord Uzumi Nara Athha." At this, the Orb natives started sweating.

"What?"

"Orb resources, technology and personnel were used in their construction inside Orb territory, without permission from Chief Representative Athha. Thus, it was decided that we should repossess these items." By this point Kira was feeling extremely uncomfortable. While he'd told the truth so far, he was leaving some rather important, if personal, bits out….By then, most of the Orb natives had lowered their weapons, looking shocked. Kira really couldn't blame them. It wasn't every day you find out your friend of one year was actually a personal agent of the Chief Representative of Orb…As far as they knew. Well, at least he wouldn't have to drop the other bombshell.

Then Jack walked in. The Coordinator looked around, then at Kira.

"So, they got you to tell them about how your dad sent us to get the stuff." Kira's face met his palm as Sai, Tolle, and Miriallia stared at him. Kuzzey fainted.

**Barachiel, 1****st**** Hanger Deck**

**11:35 A.M. Orb Time**

"I didn't know you didn't want them to know!" Jack said, trailing after Kira as the Orb Prince sought out Liene. Kira wanted to do some maintenance on the Augury, if just to blow off steam. When they opened the door, they saw the mechanics crawling all over the ZAFT-owned Gundams, while the pilots were in the center of the deck, confronted by Liene. The engineer spotted the two Orb pilots and waved them over, with Yzak turning to look at them threateningly, Dearka looking laid-back, and Nicol waving like they were old friends.

"Hello." Kira said as he descended from the catwalk, Jack following like a remora on a manta ray. Yzak barely waited for their feet to touch the deck before dashing over to them.

"Which one of you pilots the Kiba?" He demanded, face reddening. Jack raised his hand slightly, like an amused schoolkid when the teacher asked who put the firecracker in his toilet. "Simulator duel, NOW!" Yzak jetted away towards the Enmity, muttering about Orb, Gundams, and crazed engineers who wanted data. Jack took his own meandering path towards the Kiba. When Jack finally buckled himself in, Liene started typing on his laptop, starting up the recently installed simulator programs in the Enmity and Kiba.

**Simulation: Generic Desert**

**Noon**

The Gundams materialized on the desert sand, gravity pulling them ankle deep into the shifting dunes.

"Uh….why here?" Jack asked. Despite the Kiba's relatively light weight, Jack liked the feel of space combat. No limits to his movement.

"I need data on the Gundam's desert capabilities under standard programming so I can add programs to compensate for the combined effect of gravity, heat, unstable terrain, and other such factors." Liene replied. Shrugging, both pilots took their positions, Yzak moving the Enmity in a wide-legged stance with shield in front and beam rifle sticking out. The sand shifted, sending the Gundam tumbling down to the ground.

"What the-" Yzak didn't managed to finish his sentence before the airborne Kiba jumped off the Enmity's chest, leaping off in a somersault that showed the skill Jack had in controlling it. Then the Kiba landed, becoming victim to the same phenomenon that tumbled the Enmity.

"Data gathered." Liene's voice called out. "I'll move you two to a more stable fighting ground." The scene disintegrated, reforming later into a completely different area.

**Simulation: Generic Forest**

**Midnight**

"Need I ask?" Jack said.

"Data for night-time operations. More for the others sake instead of mine."

"Ugh." Yzak groaned, before sprinting the Enmity towards the Kiba, beam rifle firing. The Silver Gundam dodged to the side, thrusters firing. A flash of silver revealed the bisected rifle, which Yzak tossed aside before drawing the beam sword. Jack danced the Kiba around the Enmity, dodging the slice as the Chilong claws hamstrung the Blue Gundam, cutting the electroactive polymers and causing the Enmity to fall to its knees. Jack stabbed the claws through both shoulders, ripping them off as he moved the Kiba around to face the Enmity head-on. Jack grinned as Yzak swore, trying to move the Enmity to retaliate. All the Redcoat managed was firing the CIWS guns ineffectively. Standing straight in front of the Enmity, the Kiba's maw opened, and instead of the familiar apparatus of the Ion Beam Cannon descending from the top jaw, the Positron Cannon rose from the lower one, centering itself before charging. However, before the cannon could fire its awesome annihilating antimatter, the containment fields failed, releasing the positrons to cause a wide-scale explosion not unlike that of a one megaton thermonuclear weapon.

**Barachiel, 1****st**** Hanger Deck**

**1:28 P.M. Orb Time**

Jack and Yzak never made it out of their cockpits before falling asleep, exhausted by the constant duels, more often than not ending in a pseudo-draw as one or the other made some blunder that caused their mutual annihilation. At the same time, Nicole and Dearka had run drills with Kira, running each other into the ground trying to keep up with the undeniably skilled pilot. After a while, the two ZAFT pilots had admitted defeat and begged to go off to their quarters.

Now it was just Kira and Liene, and whatever horrors the engineer could face the pilot with.

"Alright Kira, I've managed to get the data on one of OMNI's new terrestrial units…"

"I thought all they had were tanks, soldiers, and aircraft."

"So did I, but apparently they had other R&D divisions other than the one at Heliopolis. Seems this one is based a little on the Shadowfax's design."

"What's it meant for?"

"Originally, high-speed aquatic warfare, but it seems they found a way to modify it for desert combat." Without further ado, Liene activated the program, launching Kira into battle.

**Simulation: Generic Desert**

**Noon**

The Augury materialized, equipped with the Angelos pack. Kira was familiar with this location. After Jack and Yzak's fight, Liene had made the necessary modifications to the Gundams' OS, and now they could fight on the sand as well as any other terrain. Something was different though.

"Erm…what are those?" Kira asked, meaning the plumes of desert sand blowing into the air, before being blown away by the wind.

"Those would be the new mobile armors." One of the trails was nearing the Augury, approaching at an extremely high speed. Just before reaching it, the object making the trail leaped out of the sand, soaring over the Augury's head before diving back under the dunes. In the brief glimpse he'd gotten, Kira had seen a wedge-like form, a shark-mouth painted on the front, and scales. Around him the trails, five in total, began to circle, and grow. As the plumes of flying sand intensified, the mobile armors appeared, seemingly sticking the upper third of them above the surface of the desert. On their back, a turret emerged from a stream-lined hull, swiveling to face the Augury. The next second, they fired, railguns launching shells at near 1 km/s, impacts knocking the Augury over. Next was a flight of missiles, launched from either side of the railguns, arcing high before slamming down onto the Augury. Grim, Kira forced the Gundam back to its feet before taking off, thrusters flaring.

Like the first time, one of the armors leaped out of the sand, but this time, dozens of tiny beam blades ignited on either side, each the width of a little finger and about fifty centimeters long. Then they started rotating, like saw blades. The blade on the side of the armor sliced through the Augury's right leg at mid-thigh, disabling the thrusters and sending the Gundam spiraling into a crash.

A second armor leaped, this time angling its nose towards the fallen mobile suit. On the ventral surface, just below the pointed tip, Kira saw what looked like a weirdly shaped speaker. Before the simulator flashed the newly present DEFEATED sign, Kira heard a high-pitched shriek.

**Barachiel, 1****st**** Hanger Deck**

**1:36 P.M. Orb Time**

Kira sat inside the Augury, going over the simulated damage reports, and asking Liene about the mobile armors.

"So what are they? I don't think I've seen anything that swims in the sand…."

"The OMNI reports I hacked called them 'Megalodens'. As I said, they were originally made to counter ZAFT's SIMCA amphibious mobile suit, and didn't do too bad. Instead of every nine out of ten ships in their fleets sinking in places like the Caspian Sea, only about two or three out of ten are being destroyed. The SIMCA are too mobile to completely stop, but the Megaloden's have the edge in speed. I think OMNI got a copy of ZAFT's scale system designs, and started mass-producing them. After about a week, they started making these desert-type ones, and they've been raising hell in all the desert areas across the Earth." Liene explained, going over the data with Kira.

"So….they're fast. What about weapons?"

"Well, you pretty much saw their entire arsenal. A railgun on a dorsal turret mount, flanked by two missile/torpedo launchers. Two side-based beam chainsaws. And a ventrally mounted hypersound cannon."

"Hmmmm…."

0000000000000000000000000000000000000000 -- Quis est a Iuguolo nisi a Iuguolo? – 000000000000000000000000000000000000

**Barachiel, 1****st**** Hanger Deck**

**January 5****th****, 71 C.E., 7:30 P.M. Orb Time.**

Today was rather special. For the first time, a (former) OMNI warship would play host to a ZAFT Commander. And a famous one at that. Mu was rather looking forward to it.

The mobile suits were lined up, just like the honor guard of a foreign politician. The Augury stood next to the Kiba in the starboard row, while the Enmity, Ferox, and Noctoraptor made up the port row. When Le Creuset floated into the port part of the hanger, they all goggled at the new suit he piloted.

It looked similar to a SCAU, somewhat like how the Kiba was similar to the Augury, or the Ferox. It was huge, at about nineteen meters, all grey and silver armor. The Gundam pilots noted the V-fin with its crooked arms, and the slightly more vibrant coloring of the torso armor. Its head shared the same general design of the SCAU, although a jagged design on the mouth part gave off the impression of a toothy grin. The legs were different, with thighs shortened and calves lengthened, and apparently more heavily armored. The shoulder flanges matched the length of the Bastion's, and the arms were almost exactly the same as the SCAU. However, a small shield, running from manipulator to elbow, covered the forearm.

They all continued to stare, only Kira managing to turn his attention away for Athrun's arrival in the Bastion through the starboard hatch.

"Hey, Kira!" Athrun said over the comm, Bastion patting the Augury lightly over the shoulder on its way to the suit berth. Kira moved the Augury's arm in a wave.

Moments later, with the mobile suits in their designated berths, the pilots (and Liene) all gathered on the deck.

"So, you're not actually with the Orb Intelligence Agency, but you are personal agents of the Chief Representative of Orb, Uzumi Nara Athha." Rau started off, recounting what Kira had told him. "You, Kira, are also Chief Representative Athha's son, full name Kira Yamato Athha?" Kira nodded. "Well, a rather auspicious individual to conspire with…."

"Tell me about it." Mu said, rather perturbed. Rau turned to him, seemingly interested.

"Mu La Flaga? A pleasure to finally meet you. I admit, though, that these aren't exactly the circumstances I expected…."

"Me neither." The two aces regarded each other warily. Rau had killed many mobile armor pilots, some of which Mu had known, not exactly well, but still….Likewise, Mu had single-handedly destroyed several of Rau's colleagues, which was a major cause for concern to the ZAFT commander. Professionally, if not personally.

Around them, the younger pilots edged away from the slightly confrontational aura surrounding the two, moving off to converse among themselves.

"So when did you become the Chief Representative of Orb's son?" Athrun asked, perplexed.

"Well," Kira started, "It turns out that Me and Cagalli – my twin sister – were orphans, and got adopted by different people. So, after the…..'accident' at the Grimaldi Front, Uzumi-san found me, and adopted me." The ZAFT pilots stared for a moment, before moving on to other topics. The most interesting one, however, was the issue of Kira and Jack's piloting.

"How the hell can you two pilot well enough to fend all three of us off?" Yzak demanded. Kira and Jack shrugged, then started explaining.

"I hacked into the ZAFT training academy and got copies of the designs for the simulators, as well as several of the more difficult training programs." Kira started, with Jack taking up the explanation.

"I made them, making a few alterations as we got more info on the Gundams, and Kira added his modified programs."

"I hacked ZAFT again to get combat data on aces, namely Commander Le Creuset."

"We practiced against simulated opponents and each other." The two finished, Jack exuding smugness while Kira just grinned embarrassedly.

"All pilots to the briefing room!" The intercom blared, Natarle's voice ringing out instead of Miriallia's. The Orb pilots looked at each other, before shrugging and leading the ZAFT redcoats to the room.

**Outer Edge of the Debris Belt, Barachiel, Cafeteria/Meeting Room/Break Room**

"What did you say?!" Athrun thundered, standing over Sai. The blonde trembled, slightly scared.

"W-we detected seven OMNI ships and what our sensors designated the 'Silverwind', a civilian vessel. It seems that the OMNI ships fired on it." Athrun turned towards Le Creuset, who spoke before the green-eyed pilot could.

"That ship is the one Miss Lacus Clyne was supposed to be on for the Junius Seven memorial trip....If at all possible, we must aid the Silverwind."

"Wait, Lacus Clyne? The PLANTS pop star?" Miriallia asked, eyes wide. The ZAFT pilots nodded, before heading straight out the door, leaving the majority of the remaining people in the room.

"Well, are you going to help them?" Kira asked, turning to the former OMNI troops with a strange gleam in his eyes. Jack was already heading out the door. The officers stood around, looking uncomfortable.

"But why would they attack a civilian ship?" Murrue asked, clearly troubled.

"I'm guessing that those ships are crewed by mainly Blue Cosmos supporters." Mu said. "They're as bad as 21st century terrorists. Worse, actually." The Hawk left the room, heading to the 2nd hanger deck where the Shadowfax waited. Kira followed him out, leaving the rest in the room.

**Silverwind, Bridge**

"Open up!" The OMNI soldier shouted, banging his rifle on the bridge door. On the other side, several ZAFT soldiers took what cover they could, while Lacus Clyne stayed to the back. Her pink Haro bounced next to her, screaming: "I won't accept it!" over and over again. Most of the crew smiled slightly. It almost seemed like Lacus' Haro had absorbed all the usual celebrity emotions that famous people usually got. Miss Clyne herself smiled back, worried, but putting on a brave face.

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A/N: Kinda ended it a little badly....but it is just one half. I'll have the other half out later this week, along with File 02. Also: Flashdrive troubles + Slight case of Writer's Block = Loooong writing time. Hopefully I can clear up this condition by tomorrow.

Omake Roster:

Suzaku Kurugi: Code Geass Pro/Antagonist, depending on your point of view

Lelouch Lamperouge/Vi Brittania: Code Geass Protagonist

Light Yagami: Death Note Protagonist

Sousuke Sagara: Full Metal Panic Protagonist

Setsuna F. Seiei: Gundam 00 Protagonist

Heero Yuy: Gundam Wing Protagonist

K'GoN: Sort of a little joke I made up while writing Meaning of Zero in the Gundam 00 section, He's like a little droid as described, although he was originally a fusion of Exia and the Shinkirou. His personality is like a clone of mine, running slightly more to insanity and stupidity. ("Shut up") And as you can see, I sometimes put stuff he would say in my Author Notes. I wonder if that means I'm crazy?

G. Wagers: Sorry about that. But, I find that it's good to break up the more serious stuff sometimes with the funny (or, not-so-funny, depending on your sense of humor)


	9. Phase 05, Part 2

Gundam Seed: Killer's Realm

Phase 5, Part 2: Pop Stars and Allsters

**Outer Edge of Debris Belt, Vesalius, Bridge**

**January 27t****h****, 71 C.E., 7:57 P.M., Orb Time**

"Why aren't we launching, Ades?" Miguel demanded. The blond pilot was standing next to Ades' command chair, hand clenched by his side. "We should launch now and destroy those ships!" Ades sighed.

"Commander Le Creuset has ordered us to circle around the OMNI ships, blocking their route of escape. Meanwhile, He, the rest of his team, and the Orb pilots will attack the group from the front." Miguel paused at that. He had to admit, it made sense. Calming down, he made his way to the hanger, where his repaired custom ZONGS waited.

**Barachiel, 1****st**** Hanger Deck**

Athrun strapped himself into the Bastion quickly, even as Kira and Jack raced towards their own Gundams. Rau was already stepping up to the catapult, being more comfortable in the somewhat familiar SCAU-XU Charcharius. The ZAFT pilots finished their start-up procedures just as the Orb pilots began theirs, moving to the catapults on either deck. First to launch was the Charcharius and the Bastion, both firing thrusters as soon as they cleared the catapults. Next were the Ferox, Noctoraptor and the Enmity, followed by the Cavalier Augury and the Kiba. Mu launched a second later, moving off all by himself. Aside from the Noctoraptor, the Shadowfax was the stealthiest unit. The Gundams and SCAU-XU formed up, with the Bastion holding up the rear and the Charcharius leading.

"Wait, why is Athrun lagging behind?" Yzak asked crossly.

"While we were at Aprilius One, the engineers at Maius had a look at the Bastion, and made some modifications." Rau answered.

"THEY DID WHAT!!!????" Liene veritably screamed over the comms. The engineer was tapping the comms in case the pilots ran across any problems. Rau ignored the steaming engineer.

"Athrun, you might as well do it." The next second saw a change sweep over the Bastion. The flanges began to rotate out, folding out as well until they were practically as long as each of the Bastion's limbs. Sections of armor flipped out on hinges, revealing telescoping antennae. The V-fin's arms extended as well, becoming about twice as long, with sections every fifty centimeters sliding out at ninety-degree angles. The shield was stored on the Bastion's back, Multi-Phase Cannon concealed by shifting armor plates.

"Conversion to Beta Bastion complete." Athrun said, while Liene screamed over the comm line.

"I WAS SUPPOSED TO FINISH THAT!"

"Lay off Liene, you're just annoyed that someone else tampered with your mobile suits." Jack said, before cutting the comms and shifting a bit in his seat, making absolutely sure to be in the most uncomfortable position possible before letting Chimamare take control. The bloodthirsty alter mentally cursed Jack, before moving into a better position. The Kiba's movements shifted slightly, going from a standard mobile suit movement style, to something resembling how a hunting cat moved, lithe and predatory. Of the six others, only Kira and Rau noticed the change.

_I wonder…._Rau thought, before filing the curiosity away in the back of his mind. The mobile armors had noticed them.

0000000000000000000000000000000000000000 – Quis est a Iuguolo nisi a Iuguolo? – 000000000000000000000000000000000000

On their part, the mobile armors assigned to the battle group had never expected to find themselves faced with the stolen prototypes. Nor had they expected to find said prototypes accompanied by a new ZAFT unit. Or the Shadowfax, which most of the elite pilots had drooled over upon witnessing simulations with its theoretical data.

Moving quickly, with anti-mobile suit tactics developed over years of combat, they split up, the thirty or so Moebius armors pairing up. Immediately, when they came within a kilometer of the approaching suits, about a third of them began having problems with their engines, and about half of those reported difficulties controlling the mobile armors. Two of those exploded for no obvious reason. The rest didn't live long enough to wonder what happened.

The Ferox's barrage eliminated ten armors immediately, with a few bursts of the Enmity's Beowulf ripping through three more. The Noctoraptor darted among a group of five too close to each other, not even dodging the badly missing shots before destroying them with beams from the shield carbines. The Augury and Kiba shredded seven, before moving for the Agamemnon hanging at the back of the ship formation. The Shadowfax zoomed past the entire fight, a flight of missiles launching for a Drake-class drifting away from the group. The Charcharius accounted for the rest, destroying two with the thermal bayonet from its linear assault rifle, and a third one with the beam saber in its shield. The scattered remnants were cleared up with bursts from the torso-based pulse lasers, as Rau moved the SCAU-XU towards the forward most Drake-class. Athrun began slowly moving the B-Bastion, until he was within a kilometer of the rearmost Drake.

The crews of the ships were, needless to say, fucking scared of the seven suits and one armor. The two forward Nelsons and the Drakes opened up with everything they had, machine guns, beam guns, missiles, everything began firing.

At each other.

The devastation was obvious, as gaping holes opened up in their hulls, before the Shadowfax's missiles could hit. A few lucky (or unlucky) beams hit chemical reactors, ammunition bays or mobile armor munitions of two Drakes, causing internal explosions that shredded the two vessels.

In the Agamemnon's bridge, Captain Alex Dynam in command of the battle group raged.

"What the hell are you doing!?" He roared into the comms link. The other captains couldn't explain. Their targeting systems were classifying the others as targets. Dynam felt a chill.

_Wasn't the Bastion equipped with an EWACS system? But it shouldn't be able to do that! Unless….._

"You!" he barked, pointing at the sensors officer. "Get me images of the Bastion, camera and radar!" The sweating officer complied quickly, remembering the captain's quick temper. The images he pulled up were very revealing. The array of antennae all over the red Gundam's body in the camera image caused it to look like a knight in spiked armor. The radar images showed enormous radio waves emanating from the Gundam, completely overpowering the Nelson's own radio signals and somewhat overlapping the Agamemnon's own.

_Fuck me....they got the Beta Bastion up and running! _The officer considered for a second. Either he could start up his weapons, and possibly fall victim to the B-Bastion's combination of automatic hacking and advanced electronic countermeasures, or try and flee and get shredded by the Gundams. Even as he watched, they were carving their way through the remnants of the Drakes.

The Enmity stopped briefly in front of the bridge of a Drake straight in the middle of the formation, took aim with its rifle, and fired a grenade into the bridge. The Ferox's HE Equalizer rounds ripped open the hull of another one, even as its Shredder's high-velocity rounds penetrated the bridge. The Noctoraptor's Ballistra fired, the round piercing the reactor and causing a massive explosion. The Kiba's Chilongs almost idly slid through the side of a Nelson, leaking freezing air into space.

"I told you it was a bad idea to divert from the course!" said the useless politician sitting in the seat next to the commander. George Allster, vice foreign minister, was supposed to have been going to Artemis to smooth things over with the ruffled Eurasians there. Something about an incident a week ago. However, after receiving word of the asteroid fortress's virtual destruction, they'd turned the Task Group around back for the Moon.

Then, they'd found the Silverwind. After the 'inspectors' had boarded it and learned the position of the main passenger, Dynam had ordered the group to capture or destroy it. Capturing or killing Lacus Clyne, daughter of Chairman Clyne, would deal a significant blow to ZAFT"s morale. And, hopefully, get Dynam that promotion he'd been looking for.

He did NOT expect to run into the mutinous Barachiel.

"Get the Vice Foreign Minister to the escape pod." Dynam ordered, clenching his fist on the arm of his chair. Allster left quickly enough, led by one of the ensigns. As Dynam returned his attention to the main screen, a flash signaled the very bright, very explosive destruction of the last Drake. Now, all that stood between his ship and the enemy were two rather torn up Nelsons. Dynam really wished he'd saved that pod for himself. Then he issued instructions to the crew. If they were going out, then by God, they were going to take _someone_ to hell with them!

0000000000000000000000000000000000000000 – Quis est a Iuguolo nisi a Iuguolo? – 0000000000000000000000000000000000000

Chimamare. Was. Bored. It had been ease itself to slaughter those mobile armors, and with the B-Bastions electronic warfare, he'd actually fallen asleep for a few seconds attacking the ships. Currently, the alter was having the Kiba slice through the Nelson, ripping through the hull towards the reactor. He ignored the numerous floating corpses, most with various parts missing, or floating a good distance away from them.

Behind him, the Augury quickly dealt with the last Nelson, swerving around the beams it fired as the laser intercepted the missiles. The micro-thrusters maneuvered the Augury close to one of the beam turrets, allowing the massive Clarent sword to slice it in two before the Gundam moved away from the ship, circling around it towards the bridge. Kira staunched the spasm of conscience as he saw the faces of those in the bridge, the shield leading to smash into the structure. The Clarent, which Kira had stabbed into the ship after slicing the turret, was withdrawn from the gaping slash in the ship's side. Kira launched the Augury towards the last ship, the Agamemnon, joining the circle of mobile suits that surrounded it.

A second later, a pod jettisoned from the ship, flying out into space before smacking straight into the Kiba's gauntlet-less manipulator, the Gundam holding the pod up before taking it back to the Barachiel at a nod from the Augury. This slight distraction allowed the Agamemnon to swivel its beam cannons about, firing at the Silverwind.

The ZAFT pilot's cries were heard as the beams blasted through the Silverwind, leaving the ship smoking for a few seconds before it exploded. Athrun, however, noticed something. Moving quickly, he fired the B-Bastion's thrusters, grabbing the single object that had ejected from the Silverwind.

Before anyone could do any more, the cannons shifted slightly, aiming at the Augury this time. Kira acted quickly, dodging the Augury up, out of the cannons path just before the beams fired. Acting quicker than ever, Kira poured power into the thrusters, manipulating the smaller micro-thrusters so that he landed feet first behind the cannons, right in front of the bridge. The impact caused the hull to buckle around the Augury's feet, slightly holding the Gundam there as Kira used the leverage to swing the Clarent 360-degrees, behind the Augury, over its head, and down through the bridge. Before moving any more, Kira thrust the sword as far as possible down through the hull, before activating the micro-thrusters and zooming the Augury backwards. The cut belched air, items, and bodies, all freezing in the near-absolute zero of space. The ZAFT pilots, except for Rau, gaped at how fast Kira gutted the carrier. After a second, the Augury shrugged, before leading them back to the Barachiel.

**Vesalius, Bridge**

"Holy shit that was fast." Miguel muttered. His ego was somewhat assuaged now. It seemed that this Kira guy was a lot more skilled than he let on. That, or he'd been spending a lot more time working on his technique. Off to the side, Ades nodded, before placing the phone down.

"Commander Le Creuset wants us to rendezvous with the Barachiel, It seems Athrun picked up an escape pod from the Silverwind."

"So Miss Clyne could be alive?" Miguel asked. The entire crew perked up at that possibility.

"Indeed."

**Barachiel, 1****st**** Hanger Deck**

The pilots descending from their machines saw the two engineers, Murdoch and Liene, working on the Silverwind pod. The Agamemnon's pod was left derelict, dangerously close to the Kiba's foot. They all ignored that one though, instead moving towards the Silverwind's pod. The ZAFT pilots because they hoped that Lacus Clyne was inside. Kira and Jack because they were curious. Athrun rushed to the pod, pushing aside Liene and Murdoch before rapidly punching in several codes on the keypad. One worked, opening the door.

Out popped a small pink ball, talking childishly.

"Hello, Lacus, Haro!" This was followed by the emergence of a pink-haired teenage girl in a white and purple dress, looking around. When her eyes fell on Athrun, she smiled, and most of the people in sight were dazed.

"Athrun!"

"Lacus!" The two hugged each other, with the little robot bouncing around them, saying inconsequential things. Kira stared, transfixed by the beautiful girl. Jack noticed this, and leaned over to Liene.

"I see a love triangle forming." He said, nodding towards Athrun and Lacus, then Kira.

00000000000000000000000000000000000000000 – Quis est a Iuguolo nisi a Iuguolo? – 0000000000000000000000000000000000000

A/N: Before any of you ask, yes, the so-called 'love triangle' will be cleared up quickly. I don't know about any of you, but romance makes me uneasy. I feel weird writing it.

("Maybe it's because you're a teen?") Quiet K'GoN, let's not go over your age of maybe six months.

Anyway, file 02 up next, this afternoon

Read and review.

Knightmare Gundam of Ni


	10. Technical File 02

File 02

**SDDGN-006**  
_Berial-Class_

Ship Type: Absolute Destruction/Fire Support/Flagship

Manufacturer: Azrael Industries

Operator: OMNI Enforcer

Length: 1500 Meters

Width: 300 Meters

Weight/Displacement: 500,000 Metric Tons

Power Source: Large Super-Critical Water-Cooled Nuclear Fission Reactor

Propulsion: 12 Extremely Large Plasma Thrusters

Sensors: Phased-Array Radar

Armor: Titanium/Iron Alloy

Main Armament: 1000-meter HALC

Secondary Armaments: 25 x beam turrets  
75 x railgun turrets  
250 x missile launchers  
4 x torpedo launchers

Tertiary armaments: 150 x CIWS guns  
75 x Pulsed Laser Turrets

Minimum/Maximum Crew: 100,000/600,000

Maximum Mobile Armor Capacity: 350

Bio: The Berial-Class Warship is known by a much more common designation: The Mobile Fortress. This sobriquet came about as a result of the Berial's massive size, as well as its enormous arsenal. At a kilometer and a half of length, The Berials matched the length of some of the smaller orbital defense stations in low earth orbit. At over an estimated 500,000 metric tons, it could deal sizable damage as a kinetic damage weapon. In order to move its massive bulk, a Berial requires twelve enormous and high-power plasma thrusters, a single one of which could propel an entire Iowa-class battleship into low earth orbit.

In order to meet the enormous energy requirements imposed by its weaponry and motive systems, the Berial uses a fourth-generation nuclear fission reactor, the Super-Critical Water-Cooled Reactor. This reactor operates at extremely high pressures, using water to cool it. The result is low-cost electrical energy, and enough radiation to turn an average human into a mutated corpse several times over.

The Berial's armor consists of a heavy Titanium/Iron alloy, the weight of which is compounded by its extreme density, artificially compressed by gravitational compression devices in the liquid state.

The main weapon of a Berial is a kilometer long HALC, capable of firing projectiles five meters in diameter and up to 200 kilograms in mass at speeds of 200 km/s at the most. The secondary weapons consist of a mixed one hundred beam cannons and railguns, along with five groups of twenty-five missile launchers, all spread out to assure maximum coverage over a combat zone. Also, there are four torpedo launchers for ship and space station combat. For anti-missile and lesser mobile suit/armor defense, a Berial also has one hundred fifty CIWS guns and seventy-five Pulsed Laser Turrets, again, evenly spaced out on the ship's hull.

As an extremely expensive and time-intensive ship, the Berial-Class only ever consisted of perhaps twenty ships, starting with the Berial, and ending with the Orias. Most of them were destroyed in numerous battles taking place between Lagrange 5 and Lunar orbit, although at least one, the Moloch, was destroyed near Lagrange 5 in the Battle of Junius Seven when its captain intentionally crashed the ship into the colony and overloaded its reactor. Five were destroyed in the Lunar Battles, the Paimon rather spectacularly. Rumors persist that two remain, hidden by the Earth Alliance in the Debris Belt amongst the shattered hulks of others.

**TMA-001(A)**  
_Megaloden_

Unit Type: Aquatic/Desert High-Mobility Assault Mobile Armor

Manufacturer: Azrael Industries

Operator: OMNI Enforcer

Length: 10 Meters

Weight/Displacement: 56 Metric Tons

Power Source: Compact Rechargeable battery

Propulsion: Scale System  
Hydroramjets

Operating System: Desert Impulse Concentrated Kilobyte/Aquatic Synchronized System

Special Systems: N/A

Equipment and Design Features: Sonar  
High-Sensitivity Audio Detection  
Two-seater

Standard Armaments: 2 x Multipurpose Missile/Torpedo Launchers  
1 x Dorsal Railgun  
2 x Beam Saws

Optional Fixed Armaments:1 x Ventral High-Pressure Water Jet Cutter  
1 x Ventral Hypersonic Cannon

Bio: The Megaloden is the only terrestrial mobile armor currently in existence, made as a counter to ZAFT's SIMCA aquatic mobile suit. It proved effective, with OMNI changing the oceans from ZAFT territory, into conflicted zones.

By combining scale system technology stolen from ZAFT with high-speed Hydroramjets, OMNI's engineers were able to create an extremely fast motive system.  
The Megaloden itself is shaped like a wedge, in order to reduce water resistance, while also giving it an effective ram in the form of its sharp tip.  
The Megaloden's main weaponry consists of two missile/torpedo launchers on its dorsal surface, and several different ventrally mounted weapons. The one in most common usage is the Hypersonic Cannon, which creates sonic vibrations at extremely high frequencies, effectively disintegrating matter by affecting molecular bonds. The other weapon is a conventional water jet cutter, which can fire hundreds of gallons of water per second in pressure high enough to slice through armored hulls.

Secondary weapons are the single railgun on a swivel-turret mount between the two launchers, and beam saws on either side.  
In late December of C.E. 70, it was discovered that by increasing the number and density of the scales on the scale systems, the Megaloden could be made to travel underground. However, this was only viable in geological regions with extremely loose soil. Thus, the TMA-001A Desert-type Megaloden was made.  
This version was equipped with the new scale system, removing the hydroramjets as the new system in the denser sand could move just as fast. A new railgun was made on a collapsible mount for storage when the armor is undersand.

Both aquatic and desert versions of the Megaloden are able to reach sufficient speeds to 'jump' out of their respective mediums. One particularly memorable incident was when a member of the 'Sonic Jaws' squadron reached sufficient altitude to slice an IAAMS in half with his modified beam saws.

**XGAT-304A**  
_Beta Bastion_

Pilot: Athrun Zala

Unit Type: Prototype Electronic Warfare Mobile Suit

Manufacturer: Morgenroete Armories

Operator: ZAFT (Le Creuset Team)

Height: 18.7 Meters

Weight: 72.86 Metric Tons

Armor Materials: Electroactive Titanium/Carbon Alloy

Power Source: Compact Rechargeable High-Energy Capacitor

Propulsion: Multiple Plasma Thrusters

Operating System: General Unilateral Neuro-link Auto-Maneuver System

Special Systems: AMBAC  
Uplink  
Panic

Equipment and Design Features: Multiple Radar Antennas  
Phase Shift Armor

Armaments: 2 x "Igellstellung" 35mm CIWS  
1 x 57mm Beam Rifle  
1 x "Tonbogiri" Beam Naginata,

Bio: The alternate form of the Bastion (of course), Beta Bastion is an extremely advanced electronic warfare unit, more so than its standard form. In this form, the Bastion's flanges fold out and extend into radio antennas, the V-fin as well, and the shield automatically stores itself on the back. The antennae allow the B-Bastion to direct more of its radar power more effectively, as well as extending its sensor range.

The Beta Bastion has a somewhat more limited arsenal than its standard form, as the Multi-Phase Beam Cannon in the shield is disabled for power conservation, and the beam claws in the wrist flanges are incapable of being used. It does, however, still have access to the beam rifle and the beam naginata.

Also, the Beta Bastion is able to hack into operating systems, and having done so, can insert several different viruses. This 'panic' software generally causes catastrophic failures, including (but not limited to) misinterpretation of control input by the operating system, failure of AMBAC, loss of thrusters, weapons misfire, camera interference, loss of polymer control, interdiction of communications system, and catastrophic overload of battery.

Another aspect of the Beta Bastion is its enhanced uplink system, allowing it to include enemy data in its communications with allied units.  
A side effect of all these high-power systems is the increased drain on the Bastion's power reserves. Even with some of its more energy intensive weapons disabled, the Beta Bastion's capacitor just isn't capable of storing the massive energy required to power the Phase Shift Armor, conventional sensors, thrusters, and whatnot while providing power to the new systems at the same time.

**XGAT-133**  
_Enmity_

Pilot: Yzak Joule

Unit Type: Prototype Frontline Combat Mobile Suit

Manufacturer: Morgenroete Armories

Operator: ZAFT (Le Creuset Team)

Height: 18.2 Meters

Weight: 70.96 Metric Tons

Armor Materials: Electroactive Titanium/Carbon Alloy

Power Source: Compact Rechargeable High-Energy Capacitor

Propulsion: Multiple Plasma Verniers

Operating System: General Unilateral Neuro-link Dynamic Auto-Maneuver System

Special Systems: AMBAC

Equipment and Design Features: Phase Shift Armor  
1 x Anti-Beam Shield  
Improved Reflexive Systems  
Adaptive weapon ports

Armaments: 2 x "Igelstellung" 35mm CIWS  
1 x Missile Launcher  
2 x Beam Sabers  
1 x 57mm Beam Rifle/240mm Linear Grenade Launcher  
1 x "Fafnir" Beam Sword  
1 x "Beowulf" 45mm Dual-Barrel Linear Repeater Gun  
1 x "Grendel" 50mm Linear Shotgun  
2 x Anti-Missile Laser.

Bio: The direct assault and general close-combat model of the G Project units, Enmity is the 'direct descendant' of the original XGAT-001 design (which was never developed), upgraded and fit with better and more stable equipment. As a frontline mobile suit, the Enmity has theoretically better reflexive control systems, and more efficient verniers than the other G units, giving it more stability and operational longevity.  
Its appearance is standard among the majority of the XGAT concepts, a gladiator-style body with a samurai-esque head, although it appears somewhat bulky. Due to the more intensive power consumption of its phase armor, its coloring is mainly blue with white or green highlights. However, the Enmity is more vulnerable to plasma based weaponry such as beam rifles and the like, and is somewhat more detectable by traditional sensors such as radar. Seeing as the Enmity is a frontline mobile suit, and ZAFT had yet to incorporate beam weaponry into its mobile suit armaments, these drawbacks were belittled in the design process.

The Enmity's weapons befit its role, with the "standard" 57mm beam rifle employed by the majority of the XGAT line as well as the CIWS and Beam Sabers. Attached to the underside of the Beam Rifle is a Linear Grenade Launcher, which uses a cylindrical loading mechanism to both increase the number of shots and decrease reload time. On the shoulders, the Enmity has Anti-Missile lasers as pioneered by the Augury, mainly for defense of other, more fragile allies. Among its more specialized armaments is the "Fafnir" Beam Sword, a larger, more potent Beam Saber that uses enough energy and compressed plasma for ten beam sabers. On the back, the Gundam also sports a missile launcher with multiple warhead missiles, for anti-aircraft, anti-armor and anti-ship purposes. For operations against conventional mobile suits, it sports a powerful hand-held "Beowulf" Tri-Barrel Linear Repeater Gun, a smaller version of the Ferox's "Shredder", and a "Grendel" Linear Shotgun built into the shield that fires numerous 1mm high-temperature flechettes made of cheap high-temperature conductive materials.

A rather special feature of the Enmity is its ability to scavenge weapons from enemy mobile suits in the case of weapons damage, using nano-adapters in its weapon connection ports to allow connection between its systems and that of the scavenged weapon.

*WARNING*: The dossiers beyond these lines contain amounts of information likely to permanently ruin your eyesight, induce bleeding from the sockets, render you stupid via mental overload, and/or create senses of extreme literary, technical , or scientific incompetence. Read at your own risk.

Original Mechanical Designer: Velshard

XGAT-217  
Noctoraptor (Nocto=night, so, Night Raptor)

Pilot: Nicol Amalfi

Unit Type: Prototype Stealth Support Mobile Suit

Manufacturer: Morgenroete Armories

Operators: ZAFT (Le Creuset Team)

Height: 18.4 meters

Weight: 76.2 metric tons

Armor Materials: Electroactive Stealth Composite

Power Source: Compact Rechargeable High-Energy Capacitor

Propulsion: Multiple Plasma Verniers

Operating System: General Unilateral Neuro-link Dynamic Auto-Maneuver System

Special Systems: SAMBAC (Special Active Mass Balance Auto-Control)

Equipment and Design Features: Specialized Phase Shift Armor, Mirage Colloid active stealth and optical camouflage system; 4 Back and 2 Hip Binders

Armaments: 2 x "Igelstellung" 75mm fire-linked CIWS  
8 Extremity Rocket Anchors  
2 x "Arcgladius" (curved sword) hidden, beam saber equipped sub arms built into hip binders  
2 x 34mm High-Energy Multi-mode Shield Carbine, stored on hip binders  
2 x Beam Sabers, stored one each in upper back binders  
2 x "Trikeros" offensive/defensive system

Right arm Trikeros features: 1 x Rocket Anchor  
1 x "Ballistra" (crossbow) linear sniper rifle  
1 x "Aculeus" (stinger) heat-blade pile driver;

Left arm Trikeros features: 1 x Rocket Anchor  
1 x 57mm High-Energy Beam Rifle  
2 Multi-Launchers

Bio: The first of the X200 Specialized Frame series, the Noctoraptor was meant to excel in its role as a true stealth MS to the point of being an iconic case of over-engineering. There are virtually no curved surfaces or round edges on the suit whatsoever, only flat planes and sharp geometric edges to minimize the energy return on all active sensor systems. Unlike the other XGAT units, the Noctoraptor's PS armor is also significantly different in that its composition consists of not only the electromagnetically reactive alloy that gives it its incredible hardness but also various nonferrous materials that absorb the energy from active sensor systems. Though this significantly increases the Noctoraptor's stealth ability there is an unfortunate drawback to this in that the 217's PS armor is more susceptible to damage from kinetic weapons, gun launchers, and most especially rail guns, which have the highest kinetic potential. On the upside an unexpected bonus of having the nonferrous materials in the armor is an increased effectiveness against accelerated beam weapons, theoretically the armor can functionally block 1 direct hit to a section of its PS armor from the average high energy beam rifle. Also due to the change in the PS armor's composition the Noctoraptor appears to be all black even with its PS armor deactivated, when the PS armor is activated the Gundam's armor becomes so dark that it appears as though it's sucking in the surrounding light. The Noctoraptor's face looks like the other G Unit's, except with violet colored optics. The visor above the face creates a wedge between the main camera and the forehead which is where the communications fin is placed.

Another unique feature of the 217 is its SAMBAC (Special Active Mass Balance Auto-Control) system which allows it to maneuver more efficiently in zero gravity than the other G Units. Conventional MS employ vernier thrusters to change their direction, but using verniers to turn and perform evasive maneuvers in combat consumes a lot of energy the thermal signature also increases the risk of the Noctoraptor being exposed. When one part of a mobile suit is moved, it produces a counter-movement in the opposite direction, as per Newton's Third Law of Motion. For example, when a mobile suit swings its arm to the right, its body turns to the left in response. The AMBAC system uses this effect to adjust the 217's direction without expending excess energy. Thus, in zero gravity the mobile suit's arms and legs are not dead weight, but a vital component of its maneuvering system, giving it "special" agility. With the inclusion of its 2 hip and 4 back binders, the Noctoraptor is given more maneuverability over the more standard G Units. Additionally the inclusion of rocket anchors in the 217's Trikeros weapons and on its body and back binders give the Noctoraptor another propulsion method especially when working in debris fields or near large structures in zero gravity, though rocket anchors may also be used as make shift missile weapons as well despite the lack of an actual warhead.

The left and right arms both carry a Trikeros that can be equipped with a number of different weapons. The shields only permanent feature is the rocket anchor. Also, the internal structure of the shield is covered by a thin shell so what weapons are equipped to the shields aren't obvious. The Noctoraptor can also disengage and merge its two Trikeros together to form one large shield, not so much for defensive purposes but as to give it cover so it can activate it's Mirage Colloid and flank an enemy that is focused on firing on the combined Trikeros that's either floating in space or buried with its tip in the ground.

The Ballistra linear sniper rifle is meant to give the 217 great anti-hard target capabilities, and uses highly conductive rails made of high-temperature superconductors to accelerate 160mm x 640mm Tungsten Carbide darts with depleted Uranium cores at speeds of approximately 1.6 kilometers per second in vacuum. The sheer kinetic energy imparted on impact would be enough to create a small crater in the ground, and while Phase Shift Armor is able to physically stop the round, the impact would still kill the pilot.

The binders are basically tapered pods, designed for the Noctoraptor's SAMBAC system, although they are also equipped with several functions. The 217's Hip binders mount a number of smaller plasma verniers in the binders' tapered tips. Built into the binders is a holster for storing the two 34mm high-energy Multi-mode Shield Carbines which are essentially smaller more compact versions of the 57mm Beam Rifle. Along with the two carbines is a set of beam saber equipped sub-arms for surprise attacks against targets that get too close to the Noctoraptor for the pilot's comfort. The upper back binders are in the same position as the Blitz's pair of back thrusters and can be folded flat against the Noctoraptor's back; these binders contain a beam saber apiece at the juncture where the binders meet the shoulders. The lower back binders are very similar in appearance to the upper ones except shorter and are mounted around the MS's mid back, both the upper and lower back binders contain a number of small plasma verniers in their tips along with their equipped rocket anchors firing aperture. Mounted along the 217's spine in between its binders and lower calves is all of its primary thrusters for high-speed propulsion they are noticeably over-sized to give the Noctoraptor great speed when it needs to run from an enemy.

Original Mechanical Designer: Velshard

**XGAT-109**  
_Ferox_ (Latin for spirited, courageous, WARLIKE, wild, ARROGANT)

Pilot: Dearka Elsman

Unit Type: Prototype Mid-Long Range Heavy Fire Support Mobile Suit

Manufacturer: Morgenroete Armories

Operators: ZAFT (Le Creuset Team)

Height: 18.4 meters

Weight: 100.2 metric tons  
Armor materials: Electroactive Titanium/Carbon alloy

Power Source: Compact Rechargeable High-Energy Capacitor

Propulsion: Multiple Plasma Verniers

Operating System: General Unilateral Neuro-link Dynamic Auto-Maneuver System

Special Systems: AATAC (Advanced Autonomous Target Acquisition & Coordination) System  
Alpha Strike mass attack system  
AMBAC

Equipment and Design Features: Phase Shift Armor  
2 x "Tetraman" weapon support sub-arms  
4 x Weapons storage hardpoint  
"Polyphemus" Advanced Multi Target Telephoto Camera  
1 x STP (Scouting & Targeting Periscope)  
mounted in head,

Armaments: 2 x "Igelstellung" 75mm multi-barrel CIWS  
2 x Beam sabers  
1 x "Equalizer" 350mm multi-purpose launcher  
1 x "Painkiller" 94mm high-energy VSBR (Variable Speed Beam Rifle)  
1 x "Goshawk" 6-tube 1-shot 340mm high-accuracy medium warhead mid-long range missile unit  
2 x "Hornet" 220mm 18-tube 1-shot small-missile unit  
2 x anti-beam coated expanding shoulder shields  
2 x "Smog" anti-beam gas discharger  
2 x "Blooker" armed shield, contains 3-tube 5 shot 125mm rapid fire hyper-velocity rocket launcher  
1 x "Shredder" GAU-390S 3-barrel 90mm linear repeater gun  
1 x "Big Earl" FAC-22K 310mm dual mode hyper bazooka

Bio: After the Buster concept was tabled due to its lack of multi-role armaments to properly facilitate its purpose as a Fire-support test bed, it was decided that the unit's design would be left solely in the hands of the engineers working on the G-project. The end result was a heavy fire-support mobile suit that could also fulfill the role of an advanced scout or over watch unit.

Cosmetically the Ferox is vastly different from other units in the G-series due in part to the fact that it required additional support capabilities because of its significantly increased weight. The legs and torso of its X100 series frame were actually left unmodified for the most part, instead the G-project engineers created an exoskeleton to add additional structural support and power to the legs and upper torso without going to the trouble of massively re-engineering the design or switching to the use of an X200 series frame. As a result the Ferox has a somewhat Herculean appearance in contrast to its more modestly built brethren, additionally, to help in its role as a fire-support unit, the Ferox incorporates a much more advanced communications and sensor suite in its head making it noticeably larger as well.

Instead of placing the same exoskeleton on the arms, which could possibly hinder the Ferox's response time, it was decided to instead install sub arms on the hips based off the original Buster concept as a simple fix for the Ferox's ability to effectively dual wield Shredder and Big Earl. Also if the Ferox releases its main armaments to either deploy its beam sabers or to more easily use its forearm shields, the sub-arms will automatically store Shredder and Big Earl on their hip armor hard points.

As an unofficial design standard it was decided that the Ferox's best defense is an incredible offense, which it unquestioningly has, with only one accelerated beam weapon (aside from its standard 2 forearm carried beam sabers) the Ferox can bring an exceptional amount of all-range fire power to bare for an extended period of time. This is also facilitated thanks to a specialized targeting camera system known as Polyphemus, named after the Cyclops in Homer's the Odyssey, it is mounted in the Ferox's upper torso, the Polyphemus appears to be a large orange eye at first glance, the same color as the Ferox's optics, though it is normally covered by a plate of PS armor to protect it from being damaged. This camera system has the ability to actively monitor and target multiple enemies at once, further strengthening the Ferox's fire support capabilities.

Defensively the Ferox was also thankfully not neglected, incorporated into its broad chest are a pair of independently targeting Igellstellung more akin to those found on a warship but much smaller in a single barrel configuration, these give it great effectiveness against enemy missiles helping take a significant load off its PS armor. Additionally the Ferox is equipped with two sets of shields, the small composite armed shields on its forearms are quite effective for defense but it's the set of small expanding shoulder shields that provide its best defense against beam weapons. By turning sideways on either its left or right side the Ferox significantly reduces its profile while protecting its core body from being damaged, the shields best features however are the pair of "Smog" anti-beam gas dischargers mounted in each shoulder. Though only truly at their most effective in zero-g, when activated they discharge an anti-beam gas cloud and provide the Ferox with an incredibly effective defense against both Battleship beam fire and mobile suit beam armaments. Due to the Smog units limited storage capacity they have to be used selectively during a battle, possibly the best application for them though is creating a cloud of anti-beam gas to cover it and it's fellows escape when retreating from a battlefield reducing the risk of taking enemy beam fire from behind. If necessary it can also discard both of it's hip mounted weapons and their ammo containers to further speed up its escape.

Systems-wise, the Ferox possesses two weapons systems specifically designed for its attack style. The Advanced Autonomous Target Acquisition & Coordination uses the Ferox's targeting sensors as well as targeting data provided by allies to aim and/or lock on its weapons to individual targets, mix-and-matching weapons to targets within the weapon's preferable damage range. The Alpha Strike System does the opposite, using similar methods to focus weapons on optimal parts of a single target, usually a battleship or base structure, although the same system could conceivably be used on a mobile suit. However, the possibility of any mobile suit surviving the manually-aimed fire of the Ferox was dismissed as ludicrous by the Gundam's designers, and as such the Alpha Strike system was never provided with suitable targeting algorithms for such a (relatively) small target.

Designer's Note: The Ferox looks like the RX-78-6 Gundam Mudrock mixed with the GAT-X103AP Verde Buster minus the Mudrock's leg thrusters but perhaps a tad more bulky with the obvious weapons added, the head is like the Mudrock's but as I mentioned before it is slightly enlarged on top for its additional sensor suite and periscope it also has the Buster's very long v fins but colored gold like normal with the rest of the head colored dark gray overall.

It's shoulders are like the Mudrock's but colored a dark rust red and with missile launchers on top of them and their missile coverings colored dark yellow, the shoulder shields are like a cross between the G-units standard shields from cannon and the Impulse's shield appearance wise but are wider and shorter.

Its arms are dark gray with its forearm shields being dark rust red with dark yellow details and outlined with Dark gray, the shields look like miniaturized versions of the original G-units shields from the strike and duel.

The torso looks more like the buster's angular design with its CIWS on either side of its chest with that central chest plate covering the Polyphemus, the plate slides down to uncover the camera, the torso is primarily that same dark rust red but with yellow for the busters orange red parts and Dark gray for the tan parts.

The legs and skirt armor look like the Mudrock's but are primarily dark gray with the feet being dark rust red.

It's overall color scheme is dark gray where the buster is tan and the Mudrock is white, Dark rust red where the two are blue and green and dark yellow on the missile coverings and other bits of armor and once again it's optics are orange.

Also the Ferox's Bazooka looks like the Strike Gundams, which we only see it use once out at sea, but with only one magazine coming out of the top of it instead of four. Smart rounds home in on a target but they need time to lock on otherwise they'll simply fire in dumb mode like a rocket and hit whatever their pointed at.

And the Painkiller and Equalizer now look exactly like the Verde Buster's 94mm high-energy rifle and 350mm Launcher except on opposite sides with the Goshawk 6-round missile launcher between them covered by a dark yellow missile cover.

Original Mechanical Designer: Velshard (Again)  
**YMF-60X-1** (prototYpe Maneuver Fighter)  
_SCAU-XU_ (eXperimental sUbjugation) Carcharius

Pilot: Rau Le Creuset

Unit Type: Experimental High-Performance Command Mobile Suit

Manufacturer: Maius Military Industries

Operators: ZAFT (Le Creuset team)

Height: 19.2 meters

Weight: 63.7 metric tons

Armor materials: Laminated Carbon Fiber and Kevlar, interwoven with Titanium Strands/Electroactive Alloy

Power Source: 2 x Ultra Compact Rechargeable Energy Battery

Propulsion: Multiple Plasma Verniers based off OMNI designs

Operating System: Composite Rapid-Action Program

Special Systems: AMBAC  
Networked Assault System  
Prototype DRAGOON Control Network

Equipment and Design Features: PS armor, torso only  
4 x Modular Nanotech Weapons/Equipment hard point, 2 on each hip, 1 on left forearm, 1 on dorsal skirt armor  
2 x specialized weapon hard point, 1 on each back thruster  
2 x enhanced shock absorbers, integrated into legs.

Fixed Armaments: 1 x "Gemond" 30mm High-Density Ion Beam Cannon  
2 x multi-launchers, 2 x miniaturized pulse laser CIWS  
1 x "Horcrus" anti-PS electromagnetic grapple anchor  
1 x "Magra" Twin Beam Naginata (looks exactly like the Gelgoog's from Original Gundam)

Optional Fixed Armaments: 2 x MCX1 15-tube Multipurpose missile launcher  
2 x MCX2 ProtoDRAGOON  
1 x high-output 47mm beam gun M9090 "Ratus" composite armed shield, features 1 x 80mm machine-cannon, 1 x 190mm grenade launcher  
1 x fixed slide-out heat blade; MX600 assault Shield  
1 x 200mm Multi-purpose Gunlauncher  
1 x high-output long-blade beam saber, mounted in shield tip (shield looks like the Dreadnought Gundam's except with the beam saber emitter turned 90 degrees on its side and the gun launcher beneath it)

Optional Hand Armaments: MMI-XLM2 "Furia" 130mm experimental linear assault rifle incorporating a heat blade that runs the full length of the weapon from just beyond the tip of the muzzle to the hand guard (based off the M9A1)  
MMX-TL80 54mm high-energy beam rifle (design is a smaller more compact version of the Providence Gundam's beam rifle)

Bio: After stealing four prototype Gundam mobile suits ZAFT reverse engineers them and begins incorporating the prototypes technology into their own MS. A number of incomplete SCAUs are re-designated YXMF-60X-# SCAU-XU and are converted into technology test beds for the new hybrid of stolen OMNI and experimental ZAFT equipment.

Each of these units is given its own secondary unique codename, the first is the Carcharius, named after the Great White Shark, is given to ZAFT Le Creuset team Commander Rau Le Creuset, its designation is YMF-60X-1, and was made almost exclusively with his fighting style in mind.

The Carcharius has also been referred to as the "False Gundam" due to it possessing a crooked V-fin on its forehead reminiscent of the G-series that incorporates significantly enhanced Electronic Countermeasure technology. Additionally the overall height of the machine and the size of the Carcharius' head were increased to incorporate an Ion beam cannon, giving the Carcharius what appears to be a toothed grinning mouth. Also the unit no longer incorporates a CIWS in its head and the armor covering the IBC's edges are made of interconnecting triangles to make it look vaguely like a shark's mouth.

The torso is virtually identical to a standard SCAU cosmetically but has undergone some drastic changes, unlike the previous SCAU units most of the Carcharius' armor is of the same lightweight type as that used on the AMF-201 IAAMS. But its upper torso is made solely from ZAFT's first attempt to manufacture PS-armor, the Torso armor is highly resilient to kinetic weapons but isn't as effective as what is used on the Gundams just yet. The 80mm machine-cannons present in the original SCAU have been replaced with a pair of Multi-launchers that can fire a variety of different rounds, from flares to smoke, to regular grenades. An experimental CIWS has also been placed in the Carcharius' mid torso, a pair of small pulse laser weapons that can shoot down most missile ordinance with incredible speed and accuracy; unfortunately these seem to suffer from an overheating problem.

The Carcharius' legs also for the most part look like the originals but no longer have the calf hard points due to a design change, the Carcharius' thighs have been shortened slightly while its calves have been lengthened much more and appear to have been covered with heavier armor. In reality the unit's calves now contain new more powerful plasma verniers based off of the stolen OMNI designs. They also incorporate massive shock absorbers that not only reduce impact shock from landing and running but also increase the units speed while running to an impressive 165 km/h (roughly 102 mp/h). Additionally the integral storage units in the hips have been replaced with their original hard points but still retain their new plasma verniers.

The shoulders have also been altered to be more streamlined with their exterior flanges lengthened to contain a larger movable Plasma vernier; the units left arm is virtually the same as the original except for its new lightweight armor. The right arm however has been changed quite a bit with a small integral anti-beam coated shield covering all of the forearm, elbow joint, and most of the manipulator. Incorporated into the shield is an Anti Phase Shift electromagnetic grapple anchor that can be fired at very high velocity, the anchor is shaped roughly like an arrowhead and like the Kiba's claws uses Phase Shift to create a super hard and super sharp point. This grapple anchor can be used in almost any way the pilot can imagine, from a weapon to a retrieval tool thanks to the electromagnet and pincers that swing forward from the sides of the projectile that allow it to retrieve distant objects or weapons without damaging them. The cable of the grapple anchor is made from the same monomolecular cable as that used in colony construction and is extremely strong easily capable of supporting three times the Carcharius' weight. Additionally this cable is covered in anti-beam coating to give it extra resiliency to beam weapons. Beneath the forearm is a holster for storing the Carcharius' Magra twin beam naginata, normally a small armature deploys to place the Magra in the Carcharius' hand before being activated. But if necessary the Magra can be activated while still attached to the arm but the pilot must take care not to damage his own suit while doing so.

The Carcharius' back thrusters have also been redesigned to be less bulky and give greater thrust enabling it to fly in earth's atmosphere for extended periods of time, though nowhere near as effective as the IAAMS, it still has a top flight speed of 480kmh (roughly 300mph). In space however the unit's speed, agility, and acceleration are almost too difficult for Rau himself to handle but thanks to this the Carcharius excels at hit and run attacks. The multi-purpose missile launchers that were once a standard design feature have been replaced with two hard points that can be equipped with a new 12-tube multi-purpose missile launcher for use on Earth. They can also be equipped with a pair of prototype DRAGOON units that are shaped roughly like a 4 meter long arrowhead with the beam gun in the center, though they are relegated solely to use in micro gravity.

Thanks to its prototype status the Carcharius has a few unique quirks, especially since it's the first of the SCAU-XUs, its energy system had to be redesigned to properly use beam weaponry. As such the unit has a rather high rate of energy consumption, thankfully due to its redesign and significant reduction in weight this allowed the unit to be equipped with a second energy battery that is protected by a plate of PS armor on the unit's back. Under optimal conditions the Carcharius operating time is now 35 percent better than its progenitor, but due to the energy drain Rau Le Creuset will sometimes forego the unit's new weapons in favor of carrying the original SCAU equipment. Though oftentimes he will carry both his new beam rifle and old Furia linear assault rifle at the same time, with one or both docked to his waist armor. However, due to its custom status, replacement parts are not easily available for unique components; thankfully the engineers addressed this by making the unit backwards compatible with the original SCAU's components.

Overall the units baseline stats are vastly superior to its progenitor all across the board and after being fielded the "False Gundam" would go on to make a terrible name for itself in the hands of Rau Le Creuset due to it's incredible battle prowess. It is not known what happened to the unit after Rau Le Creuset began using his new Gundam, some say the Carcharius was destroyed but no evidence exists to support this, suggesting that the unit may have ended up in the hands of a "private" organization. (Editor's Note: I left this here, because anyone with the brain of a bacterium knows that Rau's going to get a Gundam. Also, because Velshard seems to have a few surprises up his sleeve.)

Designer's Note: My inspiration for this unit was actually the Tallgeese series from Gundam Wing, the machines coloring consists of a matte gray primary and a pure white secondary similar to that of a Great White Shark, the unit's eyes are red and it's head fins are colored silver and resemble the Deathscythe's from Gundam Wing along with its new shoulder armor, which is also based off the Deathscythe. The right forearm shield looks like the small shield covering the Gundam Exia's sword rifle, except totally smooth without the gear system in the middle and an aperture at the front for the Horcrus rocket cable.


	11. Phase 06: Constance

Gundam Seed: Killer's Realm

Phase 06: Constance

**Debris Belt, Barachiel, 1****st**** Hanger Deck**

**January 27th****, 71 C.E., 8:26 Orb Time**

Jack grinned, watching Kira gaze at the undeniably stunning girl currently being held by one Athrun Zala. The black-haired pilot hadn't had anything to rag Kira on in weeks, ever since that time he'd accidentally programmed the simulator to show the Augury doing the Caramelldansen……that had been hilarious. This was bound to be better. Cautiously, Jack sidled up to Kira, standing just behind the elite pilot and looking over his shoulder. Carefully, he leaned in, about to whisper in Kira's ear.

However, before he could say anything, Kira's foot jerked up, like when doctors hit the knee to get a reflex, only in the opposite direction, right into Jack's groin. Kagizaki dropped to his knees, clutching at that particularly sensitive spot, while biting his lip and mentally screaming curses at Kira, even taking a moment to compose a haiku and two couplets insulting him in a roundabout way.

Kira allowed himself a slight smile at his quick interception of Jack, before moving up to Athrun and tapping his friend on the shoulder.

"Athrun? Introductions, perhaps?" The blue-haired Coordinator smiled, turning with his arm around Lacus to face the others.

"Everyone, this is Lacus Clyne," he said, gesturing to the pink-haired girl next to him, who waved slightly. "Lacus, this is Dearak Elsman, Yzak Joule, and Nicol Amalfi." He gestured to each in turn, before stopping at Le Creuset.

"Commander Le Creuset." Lacus said, nodding her head slightly as the ace bowed. Still grinning, Athrun then turned to the crew of the Barachiel, introducing them as well before finishing with Kira.

"And this is Kira, the guy I told you about years ago." Lacus smiled again, somewhat dazing Kira.

"Athrun told me about you. You were the second friend he ever had." Kira was, of course, perplexed by this, turning to stare questioningly at Athrun.

"Lacus is the first friend I've ever had." Athrun explained. "Although, you're my best friend Kira." Frowning, Kira asked the question that was gnawing at him.

"So what are you two? Just friends?"

"Yep. Chairman Clyne wanted it to be something more….but my father wasn't in any mood for that. Personally, I'm glad. Lacus is more like a sister than anything else." Athrun said. Out of the corner of his eye, Kira saw Jack muttering under his breath.

He grinned.

000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 – Quis est a Iuguolo nisi a Iuguolo? – 0000000000000000000000000000000000000

**Debris Belt, Celestial-Class Ship: Grigori, Bridge**

"Damn, they shredded those ships like they were made of aluminum." Abaddon's second-in-command, David Sariel, swore. Abaddon himself, sitting in the captains chair, just shook his head. They'd all known the power of the Gundams, but even he'd thought that they'd take longer to destroy the Task Group…….oh well, that just meant that they'd have to be a bit more cautious in observing them. Abaddon switched his attention to the sensors officer, Ivan.

"Did you get the data?"

"Yes Admiral. I believe we have about eighty-three percent of the total needed information. All that's needed is the Augury's Angelos data, and the Kiba's Positron Cannon." Abaddon smiled slightly at this, leaning back in the chair.

"Send out the Constantines." At this, the entire bridge crew stopped their work to stare at him.

"Um…sir? Permission to speak freely." Sariel ventured. At Abaddon's nod, he continued. "The Operating Systems are only partially complete, and while we have several pilots, each is only-"

"I know." Abaddon interrupted, his voice cold as liquid nitrogen. "But we won't be able to complete the system without more data, and to get that data, we need the Augury to launch with its Angelos pack, and we need the Kiba to fire its Positron Cannon, and the only way we're going to do that is if we draw them out. Now, launch the Constantines before I lose my patience." Shuddering, the crew obeyed without any further complaint.

They'd seen the results of _that_.

000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 – Quis est a Iuguolo nisi a Iuguolo? – 0000000000000000000000000000000000000

**Vesalius, Bridge**

The sensor officer frowned, before turning to Ades.

"Sir, do we have any other mobile suit units in the area?"

"No.....as far as I know, only us, the Le Creuset team, and the Orb officers are in the area.....why?"

"Because I'm picking up ten mobile suit contacts on my radar, and no IFF signals." Ades nodded slowly, before acting. Picking up the intercom-phone, he ordered Miguel, Bois, and Hans to launch, and then opened a line to the Barachiel.

**Barachiel, 1****st**** Hanger Deck**

"Everyone, get to your units. The Vesalius has reported ten unidentified mobile suits approaching it. As a precaution, I want all pilots in their units if they turn out to be hostile." Murrue's voice spoke over the intercom. The engineers acted quickly, with Liene taking Lacus to the halls, while Murdoch and the rest got the Gundams and the SCAU-XU prepped, recharging, and reloading. A few of them took the Agamemnon pod to one side, before getting back to their normal combat duties.

The assorted pilots quickly boarded their machines, strapping themselves in, starting up systems, testing thrusters and all the other standard start-up procedures. Within half a minute, everyone was raring to go.

And not a second too soon.

Jackie saw the mobile suits fly past the three ZONGS from the Vesalius, ignoring them on their course to the Barachiel.

"Ma'am, the unidentified mobile suits have passed the Vesalius' mobile suit team. They're on a direct course towards us." Murrue nodded before motioning to Miriallia and settling into her seat.

"All pilots, launch!"

First to launch were the Augury and the Kiba, followed quickly by the Shadowfax. They were also the last to launch. Seconds after the catapults fired them out at a goodly velocity, green ship beams reached out from behind the unidentified mobile suits and blasted the catapults, rendering them unable to launch anymore.

"Shit!" Was the communal curse. With the 1st deck catapults down, the ZAFT units would have to transfer to the 2nd deck to launch, which took at least five minutes.

At the moment, several of the crew were cursing their lack of foresight in storing all the mobile suits on one deck. Kira and Jack had some rather more pressing things to consider though, such as the hail of beam rifle fire shooting from the ten suits. Each of the suits looked like some kind of medieval knight, down to the helmet-like heads with cruciform visors and the right pauldron that extended down from the shoulder to cover the entire upper arm. The mobile suits held beam rifles, similar to the Enmity's, complete with grenade launcher, in their right manipulators, with large round shields clenched in their left. On the left hip a small beam saber was holstered, with a pistol similar in make to the Augury's Dylandys on the right. At the moment, they were firing at the Augury and the Kiba, and missing rather badly.

"Hey Kira, you thinking what I'm thinking?" Jack asked, settling into the pilot chair.

"What? That these mobile suits look disturbingly like the Gundams?" Kira replied, double-checking the Angelos Pack – Augury connections. He didn't want to get caught short-handed if these were other G Units.

"No. Well, yes, but that's not what I'm getting at. Look at how they move. And how they shoot, for that matter." Kira saw his point. While fast, the mobile suits were moving rather jerkily, and inefficiently. Judging by the thruster flares and clumsy movements, the only reason they were heading towards the Barachiel at all was because of the AMBAC system and sheer stubbornness on the part of the pilots. As for their accuracy, it was as bad as Murrue's when she was piloting the Augury before Kira took over.

"Huh. I guess OMNI had other mobile suit development programs." Kira said.

"I see now..." a voice broke in over the comms. Liene, naturally. "That's what they meant when they said the G Project was just a specialization program."

"Huh?" Both pilots responded, sounding somewhat dense.

"When I was sent to Heliopolis to help in the G Project," Liene explained, "They said that it was just a program meant to specialize. At first, I thought they meant how each of the Gundams were mainly geared in a specific area of warfare or combat, with the Augury being a more flexible iteration. Now, however, I see that OMNI had another development project going, and the G Project was probably – I make no guarantees – just to find ways to incorporate some of their more advanced ideas." Both pilots nodded. It made sense. Sorta like how, after the initial aircraft in the 1900s, developers began making more specialized airplanes. At the moment however, the only thing that mattered was the destruction of this threatening force before them.

In the Kiba's cockpit, Jack clenched his teeth and closed his eyes, Chimamare wrenching both open in a wide-eyed howl of glee a second later. Unfortunately for the OMNI pilots, already somewhat demoralized by their machines rather ineffective fire, said howl was screeched over an open channel, causing ZAFT pilots, Barachiel crew, and OMNI pilots to hear the bloodthirsty roar. Shortly afterwards, the Augury and Kiba charged, crossing the space between them and the OMNI machines within seconds, the Augury's beam sabers flashing and the Kiba's manipulators stiffened into flat, chopping spades. No need to waste too much energy on these.

Fate, luck, chance, whatever the heck it was called, had different plans though, causing the two Orb pilots to struggle against the sheer panic of the OMNI pilots. In their pants-soiling panicked mood, the OMNI pilots desperately tried to get away from the two horrendously threatening Gundams, mainly the one from which the howl had been transmitted. In their desperation, the pilots tried all sorts of maneuvers to get away from them. Surprisingly, most of them worked, if not in the manner they expected, and certainly not in the manner that Kira or Chimamare had expected. One pilot, the first one in the Kiba's path, tried to fire the thrusters to dash straight up, where Chimamare was planning to slam the Kiba's right manipulator into the cockpit before using the left one to rip apart the second mobile suit. Instead, the Constantine charged the Kiba, slamming into its torso and sending the Gundam careening away. Another OMNI pilot tried to both use his shield to block the Augury's sabers and shoot the Gundam, where Kira would've responded by slicing the beam rifle in half with the left saber, kick the shield away, and then bisect the Constantine. Instead, the shield slammed forward edge first, taking the Augury in the head. The Gundam pilots recovered quickly, destroying their respective opponents in a brief fit of rage. The rest of the admittedly brief fight went on like that, with fortunate blunders on the OMNI soldier's part causing difficulties for the Orb pilots. One Constantine, in an attempt to run away, tried to fire its thrusters in front of it. However, it instead spin-kicked one of its brethren into the Kiba's back before being decapitated and then dismembered by the Augury. The unwitting projectile tried to push the Kiba away. This resulted in an awkward punch that caused Chimamare to turn and karate chop it in half before impatiently opening the Kiba's maw to reveal the Positron Cannon.

"Um, Chimamare, are you sure you want to do that? Jack's not too sure that he and Liene-" Kira was interrupted by the flare of the beam of tightly compressed antimatter blasting into a Constantine, causing an annihilation chain-reactions that left the mobile suit as little more than energy. The remaining five decided to fight at this point. Again, luck seemed to be on their side, as their unintentionally unorthodox tactics forced the two Gundams back. Instead of blocking the Kiba's hands with its shield, one Constantine kicked out, catching the Gundam in the side. And when its pilot tried to fire the beam rifle, the mobile suit flipped the weapon around in its hand and bashed the Augury upside the head. These two were quickly slaughtered, as Chimamare tore off the arm of the one assaulting him and whacked it several times with the limb before piercing it through the cockpit. Kira, on the other hand, tiredly sheathed on beam saber, drawing the pistol and double-tapping his assailant in the battery.

The last three OMNI units put up an unintentional good fight, but eventually they succumbed, losing limbs and heads to the two Gundams and being dragged back to the Barachiel.

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**Grigori, Bridge**

"Perfect, that's all the data we need, and more." Abaddon said, slight smile having returned to his face.

"Um…sir?" Sariel asked. "What about the three Constantines that were captured?"

"All the traitors will learn from them are our existence, and some minor facts about our mobile suits. Considering that we now have all that we need, and will engage in open combat with them after we deliver this data to JOSH-A, our secrecy, or lack thereof, is moot. The latter is also inconsequential, as the Constantines are actually _less_ advanced than the Gundams, as well as that new SCAU that we've seen." Abaddon explained, making sure to speak slowly so the crew could understand. "Now get us to the Moon."

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**Barachiel, 2****nd**** Hanger Deck**

The pilots, mechanics, and armed crewman gathered around the three sorry-looking mobile suit pilots. One was Asian, another looked like the poster boy for the Eurasian military, and the other could've been from Hawaii. Their dogtags stated them to be, respectively, Ensigns Hiro Hetare, Pyotr Ivanovich Lebedsky, and Kalani Johnson. At the moment, they all looked about ready to soil their pilot suits.

It wasn't hard to see why, as Kira was standing before them with an expression that could only be described as horrendously terrifying. It wasn't because of any identifiable emotion that showed in the unconscious tightening of muscles. It was because of the _lack_ of an expression. Said expression radiated such inhuman blankness, that even Jack was edging away from Kira.

"What the hell is the matter with him?" Yzak whispered to Liene, moving at a slightly faster pace away from the Orb pilot.

"They did the whole Blue Cosmos Anti-Coordinator song and dance." Liene replied. "Kira absolutely _hates_ that. Last time, the security forces at Morgenroete caught a Blue Cosmos spy, and Kira was around. When the spy started ranting about how Orb was damned for harboring Coordinators, Kira threw everyone out and went to work on him. During this, the screams made people think Hell itself was rising. Afterwards, we buried what was left." Of course, Jack had to butt in.

"The strangest thing about that was that we found the guy's testicles shoved halfway down his throat." This was much louder than Yzak and Liene's whispered conversation, and caused the OMNI pilots to audibly gulp. They all began stuttering at the same time, hoping to save their lives (and their balls) with some tidbit of information. While Murrue asked them questions, Mu took notes, trying to accurately transcribe the responses. Minus the stuttering, the pleas for mercy, and the sobbing sounds. Eventually, after about half an hour, the trio was dragged off to the brig, and Kira, much to everyones relief, assumed his normal personality.

"Alrighty, so let's go over this." Mu said, flipping through the little notepad. "First off, we've been tailed since Artemis by that Edward Abaddon guy in a _second_ Celestial-Class ship christened the Grigori, and said individual heads a unit called 'The Watchers' who are primarily a data collection group, although assassinations and other such special operations are well within their capabilities. Second, these dilapidated wrecks were formerly the Earth Alliance's very first mass-production mobile suits, the Constantine, which still lacks a Natural-use operating system, but may be completed with data stolen from the Gundams via the jess-ges- gestalt Network that _someone_ forgot to remove." Mu glared at Liene for a second. "Third, OMNI has been producing these mobile suits for the past year, and after the O.S. is finished, will start using them." Here Liene and Jack stepped in.

"Judging by what these guys said, OMNI should have the O.S finished before we get to landing altitude on Earth, seeing as we need to make repairs to the hangers before moving off to blast through the entire 8th Orbital Fleet." Liene noted. Jack took over from here.

"I took a look at these things. They're pretty simple, as you'd expect. Light armor, paper batteries, and a relatively simple control system. They're made for quick and cheap production, and can be piloted by anyone with about a week's worth of training. This means, naturally, that they're as fragile as a ceramic dish. About a quarter second burst from the Barachiel's CIWS should do them in. However, there's gonna be a lot of them."

"How many?" Rau asked.

"Oh, say about four or five for every ZONGS you have. These things are made to be cheap, disposable, and fast. They'll be swarming." Jack finished, shaking his head. Everyone dispersed on that note, going to their duties. Or, in the case of the ZAFT and Orb pilots, going to hang out with a certain pink-haired pop star.

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**Barachiel, Kira/Jack's Quarters**

**January 6th, 71 C.E., 8:09 A.M.**

Jack was pressing his ear against the aft wall of the room he shared with Kira. Luckily enough, that Lacus chick had gotten that room, with Athrun's being next to hers. Kira had gone out, and hadn't come back.

Jack was seething with anticipation. Finally, he'd have something embarrassing to lord over Kira. In _public_!!!! Sneakily, Jack stole out the door, moving towards Lacus' room, pressing his ear against the frame. Inside, he heard girly giggles, and a boyish grunt.

_Holy shit! Did he actually get in her pants this fast?_ Jack thought, leaning further into the door. Which opened, revealing two _very_ perturbed Coordinators, Kira and Athrun to be specific. Turning to run, Jack found himself faced with Yzak and Dearka.

"So." Yzak said. "You thought you could peep on Lacus Clyne, eh?" The white-haired Red cracked both sets of knuckles, flexing his hands before settling into a low, crouched position that Jack himself knew very well. Dearka smacked a length of pipe on his open palm. Looking over his shoulder, Jack saw Kira holding the balisong in a very threatening manner, while Athrun brandished a pistol, which Jack was very relieved to notice was safed. Until he realized Athrun meant to club him upside the head with said weapon.

"What's going on here?" Quick as a flash, the three ZAFT pilots and one Orb pilots hid their weapons, looking as innocent as possible, while Athrun draped his arm over Jack's shoulder.

"We're just all getting to know one another Lacus. See, while Kira and I have known each other for a long time, Yzak and Dearka don't know all that much about him. And none of us but Kira know anything about Jack, so we figured we'd all go do some...er....male bonding." Athrun said with a grin as fake as a Blue Cosmos peace sign. Lacus apparently took the bait, going into her room. The room that Jack had thought was Athrun's. A second later, the situation was back into the hostile and threatening one that looked like it would have Jack being handled very, very roughly. Then, he saw what was perhaps his one chance at salvation.

"Liene!" Jack very nearly sobbed. "Help me out here!" Liene looked up from the schematics he had been perusing, staring at the situation. He looked from Jack, to Kira, to Athrun, to Yzak, to Dearka, and back to Jack. Then he looked back at Kira.

"I saw nothing." Liene said. "And I most certainly did not gleefully watch you four beat Jack into a mewling pulp." Before Jack could cry out in alarm, Kira hit him in the back of the head with the hilt of his knife before catching him under the armpits and dragging him into Athrun's room. The other four followed him, with Liene anticipating a good show.

**Cafeteria/Meeting Room/Break Room **

**10:26 A.M.**

The six Coordinators sauntered into the cafeteria for breakfast, having completed their duties, as well as their......diversion. Upon their entrance, Mu, Sai, Tolle, Kuzzey and Miriallia looked up in astonishment.

"What the hell happened to you?" Mu asked Jack. The teen looked like he'd been painfully assaulted by a number of animated statues, with enormous bruises covering every inch of visible skin, both eyes black, and what looked like a cut above one brow.

"He fell down some stairs." Kira said quickly.

"I fell down some stairs." Jack agreed quickly. Mu frowned for a moment.

"But this ship doesn't have any-"

"Well! See ya!" Jack said, limping out the door. Everyone looked at the five remaining Coordinators, who had at this point retrieved their meals.

"What's the matter with him?" Sai asked, bewildered.

"I think something he drank didn't agree with him." Liene said. The others nodded. Everyone else's gaze slid across the room to rest on the resident pop star, who looked as confused as the rest of them.

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A/N: Poor Jack. He's like, the punching bag. Except that every once in a while, said bag punches back. With claws. Sorry for the short chapter guys, but you know whats coming up.......

G Wager: As far as I know, Maius Military Industries is the main ZAFT weapons manufacturer, with the Integrated Design Bureau coming up with the schematics for the stuff they make. Velshard used the Asimov Design Bureau as the ZAMS manufacturer, seeing as ZAFT probably wouldn't have had the resources to begin mass-producing them at the earlier start of the war in this fanfic.

Infinite Freedom: Thanks, I'll fix that

Jeikobu Kyoudai-teiru: thank you. I have the same problem myself, heh.

Knightmare Gundam of Ni


	12. Phase 07: Space to Sand

Gundam Seed: Killer's Realm

Phase 07: Space to Sand

**North Africa, Sahara Desert**

**January 29th, 71 C.E., 6:32 Orb Time**

"Damn it Maylam, move faster!" Snarled one Hadat, ZAFT mobile suit pilot. The two pilot's GAHMUs cruised over the sand dunes on their magnetic tracks, keeping the distance between them and the swiftly moving clouds of dust behind them. Both eyed the sonar display, noting the patches of sonic disturbances following them. One of the patches spiked, audibly growing as the Megalodon creating the noise breached the surface of the sand, soaring high as its railgun fired. The hyper-velocity shells glanced off of the GAHMU's armor, and the quadruped mobile suit pulled a 180-degree turn, going in reverse. The head-based Gatling gun roared, Teflon coated shells ripping into and through the Megalodon's scale systems and armor, reducing the cockpit and the pilots it sheltered into bloodied scrap. The broken mobile armor crashed into the dunes, bringing up a twenty-five meter long cloud of sand as it flipped end over end over the surface. The other OMNI units seemed to become more apprehensive after this. Maylam chuckled at this.

"Seems like these rookies don't know how to deal with us." It made sense. So far, the only things the Megalodon units had attacked were the cumbersome, yet powerful CUMAR and Earth-refit ZAMS and ZONGS. The Tiger had finally gotten fed up and decided to risk his elite. The GAHMU's had spent the last two days 'playing tag.' They were it.

"Heh, they seem to be debating whether or not to attack." Hadat said, all fun now the serious part was done.....for now. And indeed, the Megalodons were circling the now-stationary GAHMUs, like sharks uncertain of their position in the predator-prey relationship. Then one emerged, peeking its top third above the sand. The missile launchers fired, missiles arcing high before curving down towards the two GAHMUs. The ZAFT units slid to either side. The missiles, their momentum too much, slammed into the sand, exploding after two milliseconds. Maylam's GAHMU fired; the two battle rifles mounted to either side of the large beam rifle on the turret mount spitting 133mm bullets at the offender, the rounds ripping through armor to impact against the remaining missiles in the launcher. The explosion lit the desert night, burning shrapnel scattering everywhere. The other OMNI armors apparently had enough, turning tail and running for their base, wherever it was.

"Hah! Run you bastards! And never forget the name of Mayl-" Maylam's victorious spiel was interrupted by a beam piercing his GAHMU's hind left leg, blowing the knee actuators and reducing the mobile suits characteristic agility by a large margin. "WHAT THE FUCK!!??" Turning, the two GAHMUs regarded their attacker, a single knightly-looking mobile suit. The machine was colored in black and red, with golden camera units at the end of each arm of the cruciform visor of its head. In its left hand, it held a rectangular shield large enough to cover the mobile suit head to foot, and its right held a bizarre-looking rifle, with the handle mounted on top instead of the bottom and the trigger pulled by the little finger. The rifle seemed to be some kind of bullpup design, with what looked like a clip protruding from the bottom of the stock. The barrel ended about three meters from the grip, and had thirty centimeter notches on top and bottom.

"Looks like that new OMNI mobile suit Le Creuset reported." Hadat said, cautious and nervous again.

"GAH! I just had this thing repainted!" Maylam howled. "I'll make you pay for that cheap shot, bastard!" The Gatling gun fired, sending death in the form of shells towards the upstart mobile suit.

Which simply sidestepped, avoiding the burst while raising its rifle and firing again. The beam pierced the GAHMU's head cleanly, right between the dual monoeyes, severing the wires connecting it to the cockpit displays. Practically blinded, Maylam moved the GAHMU backwards, attempting to retreat. In his path, a Megalodon, having hidden deep under the sand under total silence, started suddenly, jetting upward and out of the sand in an arc that took it parallel to the ZAFT unit. The beam saws, standard length instead of the enormous ones carried by the elite Megalodons, only managed to carve into the spine of the GAHMU. This was enough, however, to tear into the cockpit and into Maylam's skull. The Megalodon paid for its cleverness a second later, when Hadat fired his GAHMU's dorsal recoilless rifle. The round tore through the armor, essentially ripping out its internal stuffing.

"Fuck." Hadat muttered, moving his GAHMU in a circle around the OMNI suit, stepping instead of using the magnetic tracks. Even with the not inconsequential weapons of the GAHMU trained on him, the OMNI pilot apparently had no worries, merely inspecting its rifle. The next second, however, saw the rifle's beams stabbing through the GAHMU's dorsal weapons systems. Hadat reacted instantly, the dispensers on its upper legs exhuming clouds of sensor obscuring smoke. The GAHMU moved back, echolocating sonar systems guiding it through the blinding smog. Muttering to himself, Hadat keyed in the targeting parameters for the leg-mounted missiles, as well as the ventral terrain-following torpedo launchers. A second later, the devastating array of weaponry launched, headed towards the audio signature of the OMNI unit's systems. Before the missiles could exit the smoke cloud, bursts of large-caliber shells tore through it, ripping into the missiles and prematurely detonating them. The explosive force dispelled the last of the cover, revealing the GAHMU to the mobile suit's visual sensors.

_How the hell? There's no way his CIWS could have detected the missile launch when they were in the smokescreen...._ Hadat thought, moving the GAHMU back slowly as he watched the large-bore guns retreat back into their housing in the mobile suits head, covered by armor plates indistinguishable from the rest of the head. _Either he has some kind of special sensor system or...._ This train of thought was interrupted when the mobile suit instantaneously lifted its rifle and fired a trio of shots, expertly destroying both forelegs, touching off the missiles in the right one's upper leg and destroying the base structure in the left one. _He's fucking winging it! Damn bastard's using manual targeting!_

Instead of merely finishing off the GAHMU from a distance, the OMNI suit decided to slowly walk up, until he stood directly in front of the ZAFT quadruped. The next second, a beam blade emitted from the notches in the rifle's barrel, originating as two blades before widening to become one four meter long blade in front of the barrel. The beam blade sliced up, then down, cutting the GAHMU's head in half and carving into the torso.

Inside the mobile suit's cockpit, Abaddon grinned as he flourished the blade in a sort of warrior's salute. Coordinators they may be, they still fought well.

"Abaddon." Sariel called out, his custom Constantine cresting the nearby dune hill. It was Watcher policy to never refer to one another by rank on the battlefield. It wouldn't do for ZAFT to know just how important they were, after all. "How's the Praetor handle?"

"Very well Sariel. Very well....." Abaddon said, looking at the beam blade before switching it off. "When's the rest of its equipment going to be ready?"

"The mechanics say they're going to finish tuning the parts by tomorrow."

"Good." Abaddon smiled, arctic cold and knife-sharp. "We'll have to thank the Barachiel crew next time we see them....."

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**Debris Belt, Barachiel, Cafeteria/Meeting Room/Break Room**

**8:16 A.M., Orb Time**

"So, what are we going to do with the addlepated blatherskite?" Jack said of the entire 'VIP' meeting. This brought about a round of weird looks and a chorus of 'Huh?'. "What are we going to do with the dumb politico?" Jack rephrased impatiently.

"We could always eject him out the airlock..." Liene said hopefully. Allster reminded him all too much of the Seirans.

"He's my father!" Flay said, slamming her hand on the table. Jack's grin caught her attention then, and everyone could see just what the pilot thought.

"Now guys," Sai said, trying to act as peacemaker. "Mr. Allster is a highly-ranked political figure. As such, we really shouldn't harm him…..we could always release him when we get to Orb….." Jack snorted, and Liene just shook his head. Sai looked towards the other Orb natives for support. Miriallia and Tolle were looking around innocently, and Kuzzey had long since 'gone to the bathroom'. Kira, on the other hand, was absentmindedly toying with his balisong, flipping it around his hand in all sorts of complex and dangerous-looking maneuvers. "What do you think Kira?"

"Give him to ZAFT." That drew everyone's attention. "Then he'll be out of our hands and ZAFT will have its own political hostage."

"Kira!" Sai said, restraining the now-furious Flay.

"Look at it this way: He'll be alive, and he'll eventually get back to the Earth Alliance. If he stays here however, he's eventually going to cause one of us, or one of the ZAFT pilots," Kira nodded towards Athrun, "To snap, and he'll be found dead in one of the storage rooms." Flay stopped at that, eying the Coordinators in the room.

"….fine. But I'm going with him." It was so quiet; they could've heard a pin drop

"B-but Flay...."

"Shut up Sai. I know what side you're on." With a final glare at Sai, Flay left to tell her father what was to become of them. The room was very quiet for a while. Then....

"Hah! Good call Kira! Kill two birds with one stone." Jack exulted. Kira ignored him, still playing with the balisong. Everyone else just ignored Jack.

"Kira!" Kuzzey burst into the room, startling everyone.

"What?" Kira asked, flipping the balisong closed and sheathing it.

"We've got a message from the Ame-no-Mihashira!" _That_ got the Orb natives up and running, straight for the bridge. When they got there, it was to see the imposing image of the one and only Uzumi Nara Athha. Liene and Jack scrambled, coming up into a vaguely military position, complete with salute. Kira, on the other hand, bowed, years of political training showing.

"Hello Father." He said warmly, looking up at the screen.

"Good morning Kira. How's it going?" Uzumi replied, looking at his adopted son with pride.

"Very well. The repairs should be done soon and we will be able to descend to Earth soon." Kira reported.

"You know, of course, not to descend directly into Orb. I have some news for you. It's Cagalli." Kira sighed at this, resigned.

"What has she done now?"

"Well, as you can guess, she didn't exactly take the news of Orbs assistance in OMNI's mobile suit program, even if I had nothing to do with it." Uzumi noticed Liene shifting slightly, looking somewhat guilty. "Don't worry Liene. Andrew doesn't blame you." The engineer noticeably exhaled, relieved.

"Anyway, Cagalli and Kisaka have gone to help ZAFT's ground forces in North Africa. Discreetly, of course. Lately, there have been raids on their forces by that new Megalodon armor. Also, it seems that OMNI has completed its Natural-use programs. Constantines have been sighted. In light of this, instead of having Morgenroete upgrade the Augury upon your arrival, I ordered them to make an upgrade pack that can easily be applied by Liene. Cagalli will have it." After an exchange of farewells and promises to meet, Uzumi disconnected.

The former OMNI personnel stood, dazed, some of them pinching themselves. Except for Jack, Kira, and Liene, who had had rather regular contact with the Chief Representative, so were the Orb citizens.

"Alright. So, it looks like we're taking a bit of a detour before we get to Orb." Jack said, leaning against Murrue's chair. "First of all, to make it look like the Barachiel is just a ship whose crew decided to join ZAFT, we're going to North Africa to help the ZAFT ground forces there. While there, Liene will apply some kind of upgrade to the Augury that dear, sweet Cagalli has held for us." Jack paused for a moment, taking in everyone's expressions before grinning. "Sounds good to me! Let's get to it." Without further ado, the black-haired Coordinator sprinted out the door, cackling gleefully. After a few seconds, the discussion as to _how_ they would accomplish the feat of defeating an _entire_ orbital fleet began.

"From what I've managed to see, Halberton's fleet has been rotated out. At the moment, the 3rd Orbital Fleet, headed by Admiral Richard Krowhart, has taken up position. Hacking into the mainframe, I've found that the fleet consists of six Agamemnons, fifteen Nelsons, and about twenty to thirty Drakes. Most of the Nelsons and Agamemnons are carrying Moebius armors, but the flagship, the Paris, is loaded with Constantines, along with two other Agamemnons." Liene said, going over the information he'd stolen from OMNI's database.

"How are they arrayed?" Murrue asked.

"They're spread out over most of the area we have to go through, with the Flagship at the point farthest away from where we need to break through."

"This should be simple enough. Even if they have a completed OS, the Augury can still dance around them, especially with the Angelos pack." Kira said. "As for everyone else, here's what we'll do…."

**Geosynchronous Earth**** Orbit, 35,786 kilometers Above sea level**

**7:17 P.M. Orb Time**

"Admiral! We've detected the Barachiel!" One of the Paris' bridge crew called out, excited. Admiral Richard Krowhart, sometimes known as King Crow for his habit of picking through the wrecks of destroyed ships and mobile units, leaned forward in his chair.

"Perfect." He muttered. "Get the Nelsons to move forward and have the Drakes screen them, tell them to prepare for anti-mobile suit, anti-mobile armor, and anti-ship combat. Oh, and ask the Drake crews where they left their wills." The ships did as ordered, with the Drakes holding positions just forward of the Nelsons. The next few seconds had the ships launching their mobile armors, numerous Moebius leaving their ships to dash towards the incoming Barachiel, with many more holding position around the fleet. The attacking armors were quickly destroyed by a combination of the CIWS and lasers of the Barachiel, and the eight rapidly moving and firing beam pods of the Shadowfax, which flew out from behind the Barachiel's bridge, itself firing several EMP charges at the head Drakes.

Those same Drakes fell to the volley of fire from the Barachiel's beam turrets and railguns, the expertly targeted shots ripping through hulls and munitions bays to cause devastation. Shadowfax darted in, smoothly dodging the bursts of CIWS fire and missiles, using the fire superiority afforded by the pods to tear into the Drakes, and accounting for three more all by itself. A few Moebius armors, their pilots obviously having more balls than brains, boosted at the Shadowfax, intending to end its reign of destruction. Instead, they were pierced by beams from several directions, momentarily turning into miniature suns as the beams set off their ammunition and batteries.

A Nelson moved forward, intentions clear. It never got the chance to fire, the Noctoraptor phasing into existence in front of the bridge and firing bursts from the beam carbines into it. A few more bursts shredded the armor, destroying the reactor before the Mirage Colloid swallowed the black mobile suit up again. For the next few minutes, the Noctoraptor engaged in guerrilla warfare, picking off Drakes with beam fire and damaging Nelsons with the Ballistra rifle. After about fifteen seconds of this, the black mobile suit reappeared behind one of the Agamemnons, Ballistra firing upwards clean through it, the projectile piercing the armor to come up from below the captain's chair, impaling the unfortunate officer and dragging him with it back into space.

"Damn it, how many did they launch before coming here?" Krowhart hissed, displeased by the rather unfortunate turn of events.

"I think....all of them sir." The sensors officer said.

"What?" The officer pointed. From the west, the others came, Angelos Augury, Kiba, Beta Bastion, Enmity, Ferox, and the Charcharius. The mobile suits came on in a fury, the Ferox's AATAC system sending hundreds of thousands of projectiles, the majority of them Shredder rounds, missiles and beams. Even so, the massive wave of destruction annihilated half the remaining Drakes, and practically vaporized a good portion of the mobile armors.

Next to act was the Kiba, Chimamare's mad cackle echoing about the radio waves as the silver Gundam charged into a Nelson, clawing straight through it and into another. Six Moebius swooped in, hoping to save their ship. Instead, the Kiba's open maw emitted a beam of ions, running one Moebius through and impacting on another. The left manipulator left its Chilong gauntlet embedded in the Nelson, drawing the beam rifle to destroy another Moebius. Two more were shredded, the Chilongs slicing them into little more than metal pancakes. The last one ran, coming under the condescending fire of the CIWS, and managing to escape into the fray between the ships. There, it was destroyed by a....untimely shot from the Charcharius' high-energy beam rifle.

The Charcharius was perhaps as devastating, morale-wise, as the Kiba, smoothly avoiding beams and gunfire from Drakes, Nelsons, and Moebius alike, and destroying them. Le Creuset used the Magra twin-blade Beam Naginata, wielding it in his right hand as the beam rifle fired from his left. The pulse lasers fired, melting through two Moebius as the Magra flickered, halving another mobile armor that ventured too close. The beam rifle fired three times, one shot destroying a Drake's bridge and two more coring its thrusters. Three Moebius decided to go on an attack run, arcing their path to bring them straight at the Charcharius. A completely foolish move, as Rau proved, easily weaving in between the bursts of machine gun bullets to destroy them, the Magra slicing two in half and cutting another into thirds.

A kilometer on the other side of the battlefield, the Enmity fought among a scattered group of two Drakes, a Nelson, and the four surviving Moebius of their combined detachment. The Enmity's grenade launcher fired a grenade into the hull of one Drake, crushing its way past quite a bit of the hull before the delayed fuse went off. Momentarily leaving the sorely damaged Drake, Yzak turned the Enmity around to fire the Grendel, the superheated flechettes leaving a supposedly sneaky Moebius a metallic version of Swiss cheese. Without turning its head, the Enmity fired the beam rifle, the column of heated plasma tearing through one of the Nelson's twin beam guns, even as the missile launcher fired a flight of anti-ship missiles for the wounded Drake, exploding in the large cavity created by the grenade. Evidently, the series of explosions set something off, and the entire left side of the escort ship was reduced to floating scrap.

Before Yzak could turn his attention towards the remaining Drake and the Nelson, three beams slashed through the Drake, and a HALC round smashed into the Nelson, ripping through the center of the battleship and taking most of the ship's innards with it as the round continued, slightly deflected from its original trajectory, to smash into the side of another Nelson, severely damaging the ship.

"Glenn damn it, stop stealing my kills!" Yzak snarled over the comms, causing some of the CIC crew to shrink into their chairs, with even Natarle paling slightly.

In the Paris' bridge, Krowhart seethed with fury.

"What the hell are they doing? Get the Nelsons back around us! And tell the Drakes to stop screwing around and deal with those mobile suits!" Unfortunately for the Admirals blood pressure, about half of the Drakes obeyed the order, the rest either having been destroyed or severely damaged in key areas.

Then the good Admiral's day got a lot worse. The Augury zoomed past a Nelson, completely ignoring its rather pitiful machine gun turrets to head straight for the brain of the fleet, being followed by the Beta Bastion, which was doing a good job of confounding the fleet's systems. Within a short time of being exposed to the B-Bastion's special brand of hacking and electronic warfare, the Nelson's machine guns were turned on the Moebius pursuing the two Gundams, creating a mess not unlike that of a shredded aluminum can.

As the Augury reached the first Agamemnon, the powerful dual beam cannons fired, four luminescent beams of concentrated plasma reaching out. Unfortunately for the Agamemnon, the Augury rather easily avoided the slow-moving fire path of the cannons, wings moving to direct thrust in a manner that, combined with the leg thrusters positioning, resulted in a pseudo-somersault, landing the white Gundam well outside of the cannons coverage, and right in front of the unfortunate carrier's bridge. Seeming bored, at least going by 'body language', the Augury holstered its rifle, unsheathed one of its beam sabers, and slashed the front of the bridge, exposing it to vacuum. An amount of freezing air was ejected into space, along with the dead or soon-to-be-dead bridge crew and captain, and whatever loose objects had been in the bridge.

To the side, the B-Bastion simply drifted towards a second Agamemnon, its systems causing every beam to hit an OMNI ship, often destroying a Drake or at least crippling a Nelson. As the B-Bastion drifted past the cannons, its armor shifted, plates folding into position and flanges telescoping and folding into their shorter incarnations. Three seconds later, the Bastion in its original form activated both beam claws, slashing them diagonally, creating an X-like breach in the bridge.

"Fuck! Launch the Constantines, now! Helmsman, get us out of here!" The cowardly Krowhart, his excitement at destroying the rebellious Barachiel completely gone, was cowering in his chair as the images of the Augury and the Bastion floating victorious over their respective victims showed on the main screens. Krowhart breathed easier, as the Paris turned away from the battle. He calmed even more upon seeing the twelve Constantines his ship carried launch, splitting up so that six joined one of the two other groups. Each detachment veered for the Gundam closest, the Constantines from the Caesar going for the Augury while the ones from the Brutus headed for the Bastion.

For his part, Lieutenant Horace Hart knew exactly what was going on. He and the rest of his newly made mobile suit team were being sacrificed to ensure the survival of perhaps the most cowardly individual in the entirety of OMNI. The pilot didn't care, the Blue Cosmos fanatic only wishing to deal some defeat to the Space Monsters. His Constantine hefting the large Beam Sniper Rifle that he'd earned due to his impressive accuracy in the simulators, Hart lagged behind his group, drawing a bead on the Augury's cockpit. Grinning, the soldier pulled the trigger, firing a superheated beam that sped across the battlespace. And on, piercing a Drake's thruster as the Augury casually flared its thrusters, a slight amount of motive energy that caused the beam to streak by the cockpit. Then, the battle really started. Still wielding its beam saber, the Augury shifted the Anti-Beam Shield, locking it into the port on its forearm and drawing its rifle, holding the weapon in its left manipulator. The leading Constantines, two armed with Anti-Ship beam swords and three armed with new-fangled Bullpup Beam SMGs, charged, the swordsuits moving under the cover of the SMG's fire. The assault was entirely ineffective, the first Constantine to reach melee distance of the Augury being swiftly disarmed, the Gundam's beam saber sweeping right to left, slapping the sword out of its manipulators before carving into the mobile suits torso. The Augury's shield fended off the small SMG beams, before the Gundam dashed to the side, the shield/gun-arm moving to expose the beam rifle's barrel, which spat three beams, each shot carefully and quickly aimed, each one coring a SMG-wielding Constantine. The last of the first five units hesitated, torn between obedience and self-preservation. Ultimately, this hesitation had the same result as either decision, as the Augury's shield smashed into its head before the saber sliced it in half at the cockpit.

The remaining thirteen Constantines attacked en mass, all armed with beam SMGs except for the Lieutenant and three others who had Beam Rifles. The hail of beams caused the Augury to flay about like a drunken fly, dashing in between the paths of beams to get ever closer to the Constantines. The OMNI pilots, already nervous, began to slowly edge their mobile suits away from the incoming Gundam. As the Augury continued to close, one SMG wielder turned to run. Hart drew his beam pistol and shot the coward in the back. This caused the Constantine pilots to stop retreating. One way or another, there was a very likely chance of death, and fighting the Augury seemed to have better odds than angering the Lieutenant.

Not really.

The grenade launchers fired, three grenades screaming towards the Gundam, which ducked under the explosives before firing, impossibly hitting each grenade launcher in the drum magazine. The beams set off the grenades, the explosions consuming the rifles and the forearms of the Constantines. They were quickly dismembered, the beam saber dancing in between them, leaving floating half-suits. Kira was immensely surprised when Hart tossed aside his Constantine's rifle, drawing the beam saber in the right manipulator and keeping the beam pistol in the left one. Among the scattering common Constantines, the two clashed, Hart's skillful interception of the Gundams strike lifting the pilots' spirits. Until the Augury's beam rifle fired point-blank into the Constantine's torso, literally five centimeters away from its surface. The Constantine went limp, control circuits severed and melted, cockpit mostly little more than vapor now. The Gundam kicked at the husk, sending the Constantine's remains on a one-way trip to Africa. The OMNI soldiers shuddered when the Augury's cameras turned on them, seeing their deaths reflected in their golden glare.

At the floating hulk of the other incapacitated Agamemnon, the Bastion faced off against five Constantines. Of the missing thirteen, three had instantly succumbed to the Bastion's Rudra cannon, while five had been repeatedly stabbed and sliced by either the Tonbogiri or one of the beam claws. Two had been forcefully kicked into the hull of the Agamemnon before being peppered with CIWS fire, the bullets penetrating the somewhat thin armor after about three seconds and hitting something sensitive. The Constantines were, like Jack said, fragile. The last missing three had cut and run, deciding to risk being found and punished for desertion rather than face certain death at the hands of this blood-red monstrosity.

The last, few, remaining five Constantines evidently had pilots with stiffer spines, or whatever metaphor for courage and/or stupidity they preferred. A few moments later, it was proven that it must have been stupidity, as one of the Constantines lunged at the Bastion, beam saber leading. The Gundam released its Naginata, the polearm briefly floating free before the manipulator grasped its end, thrusting the weapon at full length into the OMNI unit. One of the others, behind the Bastion, decided to take this chance, also charging, with a beam rifle. Another idiot. The shield swung about, barrel of the Rudra cannon flaring before discharging its luminous blue beam, practically vaporizing the moron. The last three held back, perhaps being smarter and waiting for a better chance. More likely, the fight so far had scared them into inactivity. The Tonbogiri was quickly moved to its sheath, the manipulator that once held it drawing the beam rifle and snapping off two shots, each close enough to the other that when they blasted into their target, there was one hole. The very last two had enough, and their thrusters flared, glowing bright as they poured energy into escaping the Gundam. They managed fifty meters before a silver blur slammed into them, thrashing violently for a few seconds before stilling, the now-clear mobile suit seeming to study the diced pieces of metal that had once been Constantines. In the Kiba, Chimamare grinned fiercely.

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**North Africa, Sahara Desert**

**8:02 P.M. Orb Time**

"Commander Waltfeld sir-" Martin DaCosta began, before being practically instantly interrupted.

"How many times have I told you DaCosta? Call me Andrew." The Desert Tiger himself was currently at his desk in the land battleship assigned to him, brewing coffee. DaCosta sighed, long since used to his commander's....peculiarities.

"Sir, Rau Le Creuset reports that the he and the Barachiel have managed to clear the 3rd Orbital Fleet."

"Really? How'd he manage that?" At the moment, Waltfeld was taking a cautious sip of his experimental brew, instantly pronouncing it successful upon it reaching his tastebuds.

"Complete annihilation." DaCosta was unfortunate, in that he was standing in front of Waltfeld when the unbelievable statement reached the legendary land commander's ears. The coffee spewed out, spraying DaCosta in the face.

"WHAT!? The entire 3rd Orbital Fleet?"

"Well, it seems that the Paris was able to escape...."

"You say that like it was an achievement. Krowhart is the most spineless, gutless, ballsless military commander I have ever had the displeasure to ever hear of. Guy spends most of his battles behind someone or something, before emerging to pick the remains clean of anything useful. Anyway, I'm surprised they managed that feat."

"It would appear that the Gundams are very powerful."

"I would hope so. We're going to need them." Waltfeld finished, sipping his coffee. Remembering the remains of the GAHMUs. And the symbol carved into them.

That of an eye, surrounded by a circle.

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A/N: Sorry for being late, but I do have Exams (damn you school!). Also, inFamous is really, really addicting. I'm good right now, but next time there's gonna be wicked mayhem. Anyway, things are moving apace in the story now. Soon, Kira and Co. will be on Earth, and the Gundams will get their upgrades. I've spent a lot of time on the Kuro Tenshi.......

G Wagers: I try.

Crytek: Thank you very much. I find the same problem with them, but 00 was a bit better.

Thrawn716: I always wondered about that.

Oh yeah, I've come across a slight problem. I don't have the three Biological CPU Gundams. You know, those crazy guys who appeared just in time to attack Orb? Yeah. No replacements. And I've kinda got my hands full with the Constantine, the Praetor, and some other tech projects. Not to mention the Phases themselves.

So, if any of you wanted to try your hand at designing a Gundam, here's your chance (Not you Velshard). You know my design format.

Requirements: Trans-Phase Shift Armor, XGAT-xxx Model Number, and made for battle-crazed psychos.

Go nuts.

Knightmare Gundam of Ni


	13. Phase 08: Black Angel

Gundam Seed: Killer's Realm

Phase 08: Black Angel

**Debris Belt, Vesalius, Brig**

**January 29th, 71 C.E., 6:21 A.M, Orb Time**

Inside the spartan jail cell, the five occupants squirmed, the politician and his daughter trying the best to keep away from the somewhat filthy and smelly OMNI pilots, and the OMNI pilots keeping away from the politicians who reeked of class, dignity, and high-borne arrogance.

Which, incidentally, all three of them hated with great vigor.

There was a _swish_ as the brig door open, letting in two men, a suave-looking Caucasian blond and another, rougher, black-haired one. They were followed by a certain pink-haired teenager, escorted by a bouncing pink ball. Said teen was so eye-catching, that the three soldiers in the cell were instantly enraptured, while the girl just turned her head and huffed.

"Hello everyone." Lacus said, smiling. "How are we doing this morning?"

"Just the same as yesterday, and that afternoon, and last night." Flay muttered under her breath. The three OMNI pilots were more forthcoming, talking about how they were 'perfectly fine, Lacus-san' and how 'comfortable' they were in the 'perfectly comfortable abode.' George Allster, on the other hand, was more composed, responding with a politically correct 'very well thank you,' while showing his clear distaste in his expression.

Miguel and John looked at each other before shaking their heads.

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**Earth, Upper Atmosphere**

**January 8****th****, 71 C.E., 8:14 P.M., Orb Time**

The ship shook and shuddered, the thick atmosphere of Earth resisting its entry. The Barachiel was completely covered in a special layer of gel, consisting of liquids and molecular bits of rather inert materials. The heat washed around it, slowly yet surely heating the reentry gel. In the bridge, Murrue looked stoically at the inferno, somewhat unimpressed. After all, what's a little heat against the scorching beams of an Agamemnon's beam cannons?

In the quarters of the Orb volunteers, however, things were rather different, with the occupants desperately clutching at whatever solidly mounted object presented itself. For the most part, the ZAFT pilots acted similarly, although somewhat more disciplined.

In the quarters shared by Kira and Jack, the two were drinking a special Orb tea in the traditional Japanese manner, resting on their knees and holding the cup in both hands. Jack smiled as Miriallia's piercing, terrified scream sounded as the Barachiel experienced a bit of turbulence measurably more violent than before. The Coordinator merely moved his teacup with the shaking, causing the liquid inside to merely shake a little.

"This is nice isn't it Kira? No explosive decompressions, no yells about interceptors, no exploding missiles, no anti-aircraft fire……hell, I don't think we've even been hit by a meteorite."

"Yep." Kira agreed. "This is rather peaceful." This was being said as the amounts of screams from the other Orb natives increased in volume and frequency, as the Barachiel's shudders became full-blown jerks.

"You know, I have to wonder about them." Jack said. "They cope with constant combat, imprisonment, participate in betrayal, calmly engage in a battle against one of the Orbital Fleets, and yet a few shakes as we descend into the atmosphere, and they turn into screaming ninnies."

"Actually, I think that latest batch was just Kuzzey." Kira said. The two of them paused, listening to the tone of the somewhat androgynous shrieks.

"Yep, that's Kuzzey." Jack agreed, taking another sip.

Then, all of a sudden, the ship lurched, the jerks and shudders increasing exponentially, overwhelming even the practiced control of the two Orb Coordinators. The tea splashed out of the cups, wetting their clothes.

"That would be the retrothrusters." Kira stated, Jack nodding in agreement as the two got up. Quickly, the two changed into different clothes, a completely black ensemble consisting of a simple T-shirt and slacks for Jack, and a light outfit made of a blue T-shirt, light gray overshirt, and blue jeans for Kira. They rushed out of their quarters, going for the 2nd hanger deck, which, being the one closer to the ground, would be opening to receive the upgrade pack for the Augury and the parts for the other Gundams. After over a year of breathing recycled air, no matter how advanced the ventilation and purification systems of Heliopolis, the two wanted some fresh Earth air.

Then, all of a sudden, just as they were about to board the lift to the 2nd Hanger Deck on the 1st Hanger Deck, the alarm sounded, causing the two to look at each other and shrug. Then, they sprinted for their Gundams, as the ZAFT pilots scrambled from wherever they were to their own units, all of the pilots quickly starting their respective units up. The process, by now extremely familiar to all the pilots, was finished within fifteen seconds, with the Augury and Kiba stepping onto the upper catapults while the Ferox and Enmity walked out of the lower hatches, weapons at the ready. As they emerged, the two ZAFT units saw that the Barachiel had landed in a slight depression, practically a crater due to the sand dunes. Around the top of this was arrayed a force of about twenty Constantines, most armed with the Beam SMGs common amongst the easily slaughtered units of the 3rd Orbital Fleet, although some had a cannon-like weapon that held with both manipulators, one gripping a handle on the barrel, and the other counterbalancing on the grip like it was holding some kind of minigun. One, however, had an Anti-Ship sword in its right manipulator while its left held the beam rifle used by the first Constantines the Barachiel had encountered.

As the Augury launched, Cavalier pack equipped, the apparent leader waved his sword, a rather superfluous gesture, considering the advanced communications that, by all rights, the Costantines should have. Nevertheless, at this rather obvious command, all the Constantines simultaneously took aim, pointing their weapons at the Augury. Just before they fired, Kira used the Cavalier's microthrusters, swerving the Gundam around the lasers that were emitted from the large weapons, even then acquiring some interesting cosmetic scars. The Constantines shifted their aim, following the Augury to where it would land, the shock of its impact causing the mobile suit to adjust for a second to the sand.

The Augury never touched the sand. Instead, the microthrusters flared, noticeably less brighter, and the main thrusters added a slight amount of power, causing the Augury to cruise, seeming to float centimeters above the sand. The Constantines stopped, and stared. The Augury was literally hovering, and seemed to almost skate on the air. Then the Gundam drew its sword, and the Constantines regained their senses. Not in time for the Constantine closest to the Augury, which raised its SMG to fire at the Gundam while its free hand darted to its beam saber. The Anti-Ship Sword cleaved the SMG in half diagonally, going to carve through the mobile suit's shoulder, through the cockpit and screaming pilot and exiting via the hip, leaving the machine to fall in two halves onto the desert surface.

At this time, the Kiba had reached the line of distracted Constantines, and as it reached its first two victims, the Ferox and Enmity began opening fire, the Ferox's Shredder spitting hails of rounds and the Enmity's grenade launcher firing several times before the beams began flying. The Kiba's claws cut through the laminated titanium armor of one Constantine like paper, before the Silver Gundam's maw opened and glowed silver, the Ion Beam Cannon firing seconds later, slamming into and through the second Constantine.

The Ferox's rounds shredded a Constantine, even as three others opened up fire on the gray G Unit. The beams never reached it, the clouds of anti-beam smoke from the Smog dischargers blocking them, even as the rest of the Ferox's solid ordnance began firing, missiles tracking and detonating, bullets and Bazooka rounds spraying indiscriminately. That barrage ended six Constantines, causing the rest to migrate towards the 'safer' side of the battlefield.

There the Enmity intercepted them, engaging the OMNI mobile suits that seemed eager for an easy victory. As the fight began, Yzak actually got a little worried. Mass-produced junk or not, these pilots evidently had a little more training than their comrades in space, and while the very special and somewhat overengineered and/or overarmed Kiba, Augury, and Ferox were able to compensate for the difference, the Enmity, which shared the same basic role as the Constantine, was on slightly worse footing. Still, that wasn't enough to cause the ZAFT Redcoat to lose, never that. It just required a bit more than a few swipes of the beam sword and a few beam rifle blasts too do the job. Even as this passed through Yzak's head, the lead Constantine, having switched its SMG to its off-hand and drawing its saber, took a swipe at the blue Gundam, which passed harmlessly above the Enmity's head as it ducked. Right into the path of the SMG. When that fired however, the Enmity's shield slid easily into place, the somewhat weak beams splashing against the shield with little effect. The Enmity's beam rifle, however, had considerably more effect on its target, the guncam mounted on the rifle where a scope would be helping Yzak in getting the perfect shot, depriving the enemy mobile suit of its rather important knee joint. Still, there were others, one who threw its arm around its fallen comrade, dragging it to safety as the other two covered them. Even Yzak had to wipe away a (nonexistent) tear at this display of soldierly sacrifice. Then, he 'sacrificed' the two Constantines on the 'altar of victory', literally stabbing one in the cockpit with the barrel of his beam rifle and firing straight through whatever the weapon didn't penetrate, into the cockpit of the Constantine dragging its companion, destroying two mobile suits in an instant. Aghast at the rather brutal tactics, the second-to-last Constantine didn't react in time, being blasted into scrap by the Grendel shotgun in the Enmity's shield. Yzak marched the Enmity towards the last Constantine, holstering the rifle and drawing the beam sword. The prone Constantine fired a burst of beams, each one flying into the face of the Enmity's shield. Then, the OMNI pilot just laid the Constantine on its back, placing its weapon by the mobile suit's side. Raising an eyebrow at this, Yzak did the only thing he could do. He started hacking.

Across the battlefield, the Augury dueled with the apparently commanding Constantine, said opponent decorated with a symbol of some kind on the shield/pauldron, looking like the painting of some kind of rank insignia or something of the kind. The two Anti-Ship swords clashed, the Clarent against its somewhat more pathetic-looking descendant, sparks flying as the interaction between the magnetic fields caused zigzagged lines of electricity to play along the blades. The Constantine's beam rifle shifted to fire under the interlocking swords, only to be intercepted by the Anti-Beam Shield. In return, the Augury's Anti-Missile lowered from its usually upright position, aiming at the Constantine's head. For a half-second, the weapon's barrel glowed as energy gathered to allow it to emit it's killing light, which sprang forth instantly, slicing into the Constantine's left optic sensor. The OMNI pilot was clearly caught off-guard by this, his mobile suit starting to lose ground. After all, there was a reason the weapon was called an _anti-missile_ laser. In some respects, it was less a weapon than an active defensive measure. Nevertheless, the improvisation worked, and the Constantine could no longer clearly see on its left side, which just happened to be the Augury's _right_ side. Where it's right arm was. It's sword arm. The Gundam broke the blade-lock, swinging its blade around to the right side. At this moment, if the leader had been a Blue Cosmos fanatic, he could've just ignored the attack and sliced at the Augury's cockpit, seeing as the shield was fixed in front of his rifle and the Gundam's sword was now swinging at the Constantine. However, while a Blue Cosmos member, the team leader was by no means one of those fanatics who'd be perfectly willing to strap a bomb to his chest 'for a pure and blue world.' So, the Constantine's blade moved to block the most likely attack, one coming straight from the side for the cockpit in a bisecting slice. Instead, the Augury's blade angled down, taking the Constantine's leg off at the knee. The OMNI mobile suit fell over, as the Augury's blade sliced in several more times, severing the weapon arms and decapitating the mobile suit.

As the Ferox, Enmity, and Augury gathered in front of the Barachiel, carrying the remains of the OMNI units, their pilots turned their unit's heads to watch the last of the Kiba's battle.

Unlike the others, Chimamare was taking his sweet time in finishing his opponents. He absolutely _loved_ the game of cat and mouse. He had harried the same six Constantine's since the start of the battle three minutes ago, the Chilong claws scratching across the back armor, or cutting an actuator, sometimes curving around the mobile suit's side to rip terrifyingly at the armor covering the cockpit. Then, one of the OMNI pilot's nerve broke, and he ran his Constantine at the Kiba in an obviously suicide charge. The Chilong claws slammed into the mobile suit's 'stomach', as Chimamare flipped the OMNI unit over the Kiba's head and down to the ground behind it, the impact raising a cloud of sand. Before the Constantine could so much as twitch, the Kiba laid into it, flaying at it's cockpit armor, slicing away centimeter after centimeter of protective and comforting laminated titanium alloys. Eventually, only air and flying sand existed between the Kiba's claws and the pilot, causing a large amount of fluid to suddenly dirty the OMNI soldier's trousers. However, the Kiba turned away, looking back towards the other, frozen Constantines. The poor, scared pilot sighed in relief.

Then he noticed the glow of the Kiba's thrusters. Before he could instinctively lift his arms, before he could utter a last, plaintive cry, the thrusters opened up, the plasma slamming into the Constantine with considerable force. If the armor had been intact, much of it would have melted or been crushed by the heat and hundreds of kilograms of thrust. But, with no armor, the cockpit was engulfed in plasma far hotter than almost anything else made by human hands, the pilot fried into little more than ashes, no, a shadow of his form, which disappeared quickly as the plasma burned and melted the cockpit away.

On the upside, his pants were dry.

The Kiba leaped, the force from its thrusters allowing it to jump the twenty kilometers or so onto a Constantine, Phase-Shift armored feet crushing the mobile suit's legs. The claws flickered, slicing the Constantine in half across the chest, the cockpit, and the hip. Finished with this victim, the Kiba leaped again, This time landing on the shoulders of his target. The Constantine was floored, brought down by the Kiba's added weight even as the Gundam sliced apart its compatriot. A brief glance down combined with the fire of the Ion Beam Cannon destroyed the Constantine under the Kiba's feet, before the G Unit sheathed its claws and drew the beam rifle, easily shooting and destroying the fleeing mobile suits. After the last Constantine collapsed, cored through the cockpit, Chimamare let Jack have back control.

Shuddering for a moment, Jack shook his head in a futile attempt to clear that corrupt feeling from his mind even as he began taking the dessicated metal carcasses back to the Barachiel's hanger.

"More contacts, incoming!" Jackie warned, sending the Gundams back on the alert. All their weapons were aimed at the lip of the 'crater', ready to annihilate whatever came over. They all holstered there weapons when they saw the GAHMUs leap over the dunes. Although most sported the standard desert camouflage color pattern, one very noticeable one was colored orange with yellow highlights, equipped with a set of three rather dangerous-looking beam rifles on its dorsal turret mounts.

"Hoy! Nice work with those Constantines. Truth be told, we could have taken them, but I was interested in seeing how you did." The Barachiel units composed themselves as Waltfeld's voice, calm and jocular, came from their speakers.

"Oh yeah, the official welcome." A brief coughing was heard, before: "Welcome to North Africa, the Sahara Desert to be precise, home to me and my command, not to mention the numerous OMNI units consisting of Megalodons and Constantines, as well as this very scary, very powerful mobile suit that is as yet unidentified."

"Erm.....that....doesn't seem....official..."Jack said.

"Eh, I was never really good at those anyway." At that moment, a large convoy of several desert-vehicles, some like a Jeep, others like a sort of desert version of a large cargo truck. From the Jeep at the front, a figure dressed in a red tank top with green cargo pants and a green combat vest leaped out of the passenger seat, short blond hair moving slightly from the wind.

"Kira! Jack!" Cagalli shouted, waving. The two set their mobile suits down on one knee, opening the cockpits and climbing out. Cagalli rushed over to Kira, giving him a very tight hug that left the long-since-ace pilot (at least by 21st century fighter pilot rules) breathless. Jack walked up next to Kira, in front of Cagalli, and threw his arms wide open, expecting a hug himself. Instead, he got a punch to the kidney and a very harsh kick to the ankles, followed up by a head-butt. Cursing, Jack fell to the sandy ground, one hand on his general kidney area and another on his almost broken nose.

"What was that for!?" Jack swore between curses, slowly getting back up to his feet.

"That insulting little wave when you two pushed in that shelter!" Cagalli shot back. Kisaka came up next to her, the tall African (I'm just assuming, since it is Northern Africa, and his home town is supposedly in there) shaking his head.

"You have the parts?" They all jumped up, having been so engrossed in their reunion that they hadn't noticed Liene walking up, wrapped in a cloak or some similar kind of cloth to protect his fair skin from the harsh desert sun.

"Yeah, they're in the transports." Cagalli said, flicking a thumb over her shoulder at the dozen or so cargo trucks, which began gunning their engines and heading for the hanger. As Liene walked away, all four of the other Orb natives noticed a slight difference in his step, seeming somehow.....happy. Which they all knew was Liene's equivalent of skipping in joy, rubbing his hands together, or cackling gleefully. Or all of the above. They shuddered. Who knows what monstrosity Liene will make now?

Recovering from his slight bout of combined fear and anticipation, Kira turned to the orange GAHMU.

"You wanna come with us?" Kira asked, politely.

"Sure!" Came the reply, as the GAHMU began walking over to the hanger, taking up the rear of the convoy.

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**Barachiel, 2nd Hanger Deck**

**11:25 A.M. Local Time, 9:25 P.M. Orb Time**

"So.....why do you have a coffee machine in your cockpit?" Kira asked, politely as possible.

"Classified" Waltfeld said, storing the machine back in the lockbox beneath the seat.

"Yeah right." Jack muttered.

"Kira! We're ready." Liene called down from the 1st deck. Excited, the trio entered the elevator, bringing them up to the uppermost catwalk. They stepped out, each wondering just what was done to the Augury that could make it better. Although, in Waltfeld's case, it was more of a professional 'how was it before and how much better will it be now'.

Arrayed before them was, presumably, the Augury, except that it was draped in a large tan tarp.

"I give you-" Liene began, jabbing at a switch on a remote he was holding. The tarp fell, revealing a very different Augury. "-The Kuro Tenshi pack!" The new Augury was an inverse of it's previous color, black where it was white and red where it was blue. The golden highlights remained, although a bit thicker. In it's left arm, the Augury held a shield. It was vastly different from the standard one the Augury usually used though, more like a curved wedge rather than a blocky rectangle, and it was at least 50% larger to boot. To the right forearm, what looked like a sort of armor was attached, with what seemed to be two small barrels protruding over the back of the manipulator. The legs looked slightly slimmer, the thruster sections less bulky and more streamlined, with what appeared to be extra thrusters attached to the sides, conforming to the legs.

The most obvious and apparent difference was the Equipment pack. The main body was at least as large as the Juggernaut pack's, with a section extending down, and yet more thrusters on the sides and backs. The largest part of this pack were the two enormous wings, just like the Angelos pack's but larger by about a half. The very last part, the part that caused their jaws to drop, was the single ten-meter sword, mostly black except for the silver double-edge, that was sheathed on the Gundam's left hip.

"That's fucking _enormous_!" Jack breathed.

"Indeed. The Excalibur Beam Longsword is three meters longer than the Clarent, and uses new magnetic technology to improve the effectiveness of the beam edge." Liene said, somewhat pleased. "Going into the more general data, the Kuro Tenshi is a new Equipment Pack designed and developed by my comrades at Morgenroete." Here Liene scowled a bit. "I'm sad to say that they were a bit off in tuning the parts and equipment, which is the reason it took so long for me to finish. Anyway, before you ask, the reason the Augury is black is because I had to change the voltage settings in the OS, in order to accommodate the changes in the electronics made by the Kuro Tenshi pack." Liene gestured to the shield. "The most glaring change is the shield. Looking at it, I expect you guys think it's just a larger and tougher version of the standard shield." Out of the corner of his eye, Liene saw the three glance doubtfully at each other. "Well, it's not. The edge of the shield is actually made of high-density Phase Shift Alloys, and can slice through the Barachiel's hull like a balisong through Swiss cheese." Jack gazed hungrily at the shield. "That's not all. The shield has a weapons system built into its ventral surface, the Kamikaze Dual-Barrel Railgun. The Railgun is constructed of different materials than the standard mobile suit-based rifles, and even from the ship-mounted Linear Cannons. They're harder to melt for one, by at least a factor of 15, and are much denser and more electrically conductive. This is necessary, because this Railgun is _designed_ to produce staggering amounts of heat on command. The reason? The Kamikaze fires specially made 150mm shells, cast in four layers. The first, which takes up about three-fourths the total size of the round, is made of the artificial magnesium allotrope thermesium, which, as you know, has a kindling point of about 300 Kelvin (I guess about 440 F). As a result, it starts burning about three nanoseconds into firing, and by the time it exits the barrel is completely ionized and exists as plasma. The second layer is made of a special magnetized alloy consisting of iron, tungsten, and silicon, which both generates a magnetic field to contain the thermesium plasma and absorbs the thermal energy. The third layer is completely made of depleted uranium, for its penetration capability. The last, smallest part, is a specially made and super compressed explosive compound weighing in at about 68 kilograms (150 or so lbs) with about five times the explosive power as an equivalent weight of C4." Liene just loved the slack-jawed look on their faces. "I can see by the look on your faces that you understand the power of this weapon. Well, unfortunately, we have a very, very small amount of the thermesium rounds, so I hope you can deal with depleted uranium HEAP shells Kira." Kira now had that blank look he had whenever he contemplated dealing large amounts of damage/pain/excruciating agony to OMNI personnel or Blue Cosmos supporters. "The weapon you see on the right forearm is a Beam Carbine, less than half the diameter of the standard beam rifles, but with about five times the firing rate, for the smaller enemies that don't warrant the use of the Kamikaze. The carbine fires beams about a fifth the size of the standard beams, but is much more energy efficient."

"Moving on, you obviously saw the wings. Well, aside from being larger, they have better thrust vectoring systems than the original Angelos wings, and around twice the thrust." Which was in and of itself impressive, seeing as the original Angelos' wing thrusters had about 560 kn/m (about 413,034.80248 lbf/ft) "The main pack's dual Ramjets add on about 120 kn/m, and with the new standard thrusters we installed in the legs, there should be a total thrust of around 1500 kn/m." Which made the Kuro Tenshi Augury about the fastest mobile suit in existence.

"The energy system is similar to that of the Juggernaut's, with the Kuro Tenshi adding two medium-sized energy capacitors. It also, however, adds four good-sized rechargeable paper batteries. Most of this energy is eaten up by the formidable energy requirements of the new thrusters, although even then the Augury's operation time is exponentially increased, by about a power of three." The sheer energy then measured in terawatts, as Liene could tell by the flabbergasted looks of his audience that they understood.

"Lastly, you see that second V-fin there?" Liene asked, pointing up at the Augury's forehead. The three nodded. "That is a vastly improved version of the Augury's EWACS system, comparable to the Bastion's, incorporating tachyon communications systems, phased-array radars, magnetic resonance imaging sensors and all such highly-advanced sensory systems." Liene allowed his gaze to very slightly flick to Yzak, who was overseeing the updates to his Enmity, before returning his attention to his audience after the Redcoat shuddered. Moving on, Liene left Kira to gaze at the black Augury, the engineer chuckling maliciously in his head.

Next to the Augury was the Kiba, without any tarp or obvious physical enhancements.

"Alright, you're pulling my leg aren't you? You didn't actually do anything with the Kiba did you?" Jack asked, staring accusingly at Liene.

"Well, I certainly didn't do much with the Kiba as I did the Augury, but I justify that with two reasons: one; the Kiba is almost perfect, as I designed it, and two; Kira is exponentially more important than you." Allowing Jack to steam for a few seconds, Liene began his explanation.

"For the Kiba, the first thing done was the armor. I sprayed it with a thin layer of a specialized ferrofluid developed by myself and physically created by my colleagues. Like the Gundam's armor, it reacts to electricity. However, instead of becoming more resilient, it instead rearranges itself into a structure that has considerably less overall friction than the normal Phase Shift Alloys. This is because that the upgrades to the Kiba make it amphibious, and thus less water resistance is paramount to the design."

"Hold up." Jack interjected. "Amphibious? Why not make it fly, or dig at twice the speed of sound or something cool?"

"For the former, we already have the Shadowfax and the Kuro Tenshi Augury. The latter is something that is simply impossible to accomplish without large expenditures of energy well beyond the limits of the Kiba's capacitor." Liene replied.

"Anyway, I've replaced the Kiba's normal thrusters with hydro-plasma thrusters. These experimental thrusters are somewhat more complicated than normal plasma thrusters, which work by simply ionizing gases and then using magnetic fields to propel it out of the exhaust, creating thrust. The hydro-plasma thrusters work by retrieving air or water via intakes on the sides of the thrusters, which are located there in the case of the leg-based thrusters." Liene said, pointing to a gill-like structure on the upper half of the Kiba's lower leg. "Then, in a specialized chamber similar to that of the Kamikaze Railcannon, the water or air is superheated until it is ionized, and is then stored inside special mini-containers located to either side of the main thruster."

"What's so complex about that? That's pretty much just like how normal thrusters work!"

"The complex part is in waterproofing the more delicate structures and electrical components, installing the high-energy microwave emitters that render the quick ionization of liquids possible, and making the interior of the thruster proof to the corrosion that exposure to sea water generally results in."

"Oh...."

"Aside from the thrusters, we also managed to modify the Ion Beam Cannon so that it too may operate underwater, although I expect its range will be drastically shortened. However, we have also finally finished the Positron Cannon." At that, Jack leaned forward, a somewhat hungry look on his face as Chimamare exerted energy to listen. For the alter, listening through Jack was sort of like having information relayed by one of those cups-and-a-string things kids made.

"With the parts from Orb, we replaced the capacitors and magnetic coils, as well as improving the positron storage units. Therefore, the Cannon should be perfectly able to safely fire, although you shouldn't use it in atmosphere because of the gamma radiation generated by the annihilation reaction." Chimamare had stopped listening at 'fire'.

"We also got a new ranged weapon." Liene continued, pointing to some conical devices now attached to the Chilong Gauntlets. "These are the Maser Vibration Spikes, or MVS. They're made out of an Osmium-Titanium Alloy reinforced with silicon nanotubes made especially to be durable and extremely heat-resistant. The drills are heated by masers located on the interior, and can withstand enormous amounts of heat without melting. They are also able to vibrate at extremely high frequencies, enhancing their already powerful penetration power. At the base are miniaturized Ramjets and microthrusters, as well as a monomolecular titanium wire connecting them to their respective ports on the Chilongs. They're meant to be launched from a rather long distance, say, about four hundred meters."

"That long?" Waltfeld asked.

"When the wires are monomolecular and have a diameter less than that of hair, you can make them quite long."

At that moment, the alert sounded.

"OMNI force approaching! Everyone, get to your stations!" Natarle barked, causing some of the less familiar people inhabiting the hangers to jump and look around. Liene shook his head, jogging for the halls.

00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 – Quis est a Iuguolo nisi a Iuguolo? – 000000000000000000000000000000000000000

**Barachiel, Bridge**

**11:47 Local Time, 9:47 Orb Time**

Miriallia contacted the Augury, making sure that Kira was ready. She was taken aback by the stricken expression, the flushed face, and what appeared to be.....

"Kira! Are you alright? Your face is red....."

"Y-yeah, I'm fine."

"Is that your nose bleeding?"

"Huh? Oh, um...no?" Kira said, hurriedly wiping at his nose. "Just get the catapult ready Miri." Immediately, Kira cut off the comms screen, interrupted Miriallia before she could get into questioning him further.

"I swear Liene, if I die because of that image, I'm going to haunt you until you die!"

In his quarters, Liene allowed himself a little malicious snicker, watching Kira from the small camera he'd installed in the Augury's cockpit.

_Oh, the blackmail material...._Liene thought to himself as he brought up the image that had automatically popped onto the Augury's main cockpit screen when Kira had started the Gundam up.

That of Lacus Clyne's pink panties under her billowing dress, as seen from Liene's perspective when she emerged from the escape pod, with the caption: YOU'RE WELCOME

00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 – Quis est a Iuguolo nisi a Iuguolo? – 000000000000000000000000000000000000000

A/N: You can thank Velshard for that little joke at the end. Anyway, how do you like the Kuro Tenshi? And don't say too powerful, cause that's the entire point. To get an excuse to cause the Praetor to be ever _more_ dangerous, as the personal mobile suit of Kira's 'archenemy', Edward Abaddon (just in case you forgot.) That, and to flex my imaginative muscle (i.e., the brain)

G. Wagers: Well, not exactly sure what's going to happen to Flay, Lacus, and Co., whether I'm going to go the canon route and have her/them appear way later in the story, or what. As for Rau......well, I'll see, but Abaddon is evolving somewhat........sort of growing into Rau's role.......

Thrawn716: Well, to alleviate the ease, the Constantines and other OMNI units on Earth are going to be a touch more difficult to deal with, seeing as the majority of OMNI's troops was born and raised on Earth, they'll be moving easier than their colleagues in space, and OMNI's been positioning most of its more experienced forces on Earth to try and uproot ZAFT (not happening of course), plus, OMNI's gonna have a heck of a lot more power coming its way, (especially when Velshard's Orb units make an appearance, which happens to be around the time the Augury gets well-known....and we all know what happens when you become well-known among your enemies)

Plus, I really like making things that scare people to death. It's the psychological aspect of war I like the most. Or, at least, it ties with the explosive parts.

Velshard: I didn't mean it that way. See, I bet some of the readers have some ideas, and considering how many mobile suits you've designed, I figured I should let some of them take a hand at it. Of course, if no one gets them in on time, I'll take the Calamity and Forbidden, you take the Raider, seeing as how you seem to have an interest in transforming Gundams. Also, you've still got Rau's Gundam to look forward to.

Got a Cold War era joke for you guys

The KGB, the GIGN and the CIA are all trying to prove that they are the best at catching criminals. The Secretary General of the UN decides to give them a test. He releases a rabbit into a forest and each of them has to catch it. The CIA goes in. They place animal informants throughout the forest. They question all plant and mineral witnesses. After three months of extensive investigations they conclude that rabbits do not exist. The GIGN goes in. After two weeks with no leads they burn the forest, killing everything in it, including the rabbit, and make no apologies: the rabbit had it coming. The KGB goes in. They come out two hours later with a badly beaten bear. The bear is yelling: "Okay! Okay! I'm a rabbit! I'm a rabbit!"

GIGN: French Counter Terrorism Agency and Military Police, Groupe d'Intervention de la Gendarmerie Nationale

Knightmare Gundam of Ni

(6,116 words, It's getting longer!)


	14. Omake: Jack's Schedule

Gundam Seed: Killer's Realm

Omake

The Daily Schedule of Jack

**6:00 A.M.: Wake Up**

Jack's eyes fluttered open, and he reflexively tried to rub at them. Instead, the highly durable and custom-made handcuffs kept his arms locked in their positions across his chest, even as lengths of chain tied him down to the bunk. Waiting a few moments, Jack heard a few beeps from his alarm clock.

"Initiating brainwave scan..." The clock said, in an artificially synthesized and emotionless voice. "Scan complete. Subject is in control of himself." With that, the handcuffs unlocked and the chains loosened, allowing Jack to do what everyone else did when they wake up: yawn and stretch.

"You know, no matter how often I see it, I'm never going to get used to that." Kira commented from the other bunk.

"Well, it's a better alternative than Chimamare slicing you into pieces small enough to shove down the garbage disposal." Jack replied, somewhat testily.

"True."

**6:05 A.M.: Shower**

(Censored for the sake of pure and innocent eyes)

**6:10 A.M.: Brush Teeth**

Jack tiredly brushed his teeth, the toothbrush scrubbing slowly across his teeth. As he did this mundane, yet hygienic, routine one thought crossed his mind.

_Mornings are dull_.

**6:12 A.M.: Eat Breakfast**

By now Jack's characteristic mischievous energy had returned, with the Kiba pilot hurriedly scarfing down a breakfast platter, eating too fast to taste, and not really wanting to find out just what the food tasted like. He'd had military food before, and it hadn't been a friendly encounter, so to speak.

"Jack." The robotics expert looked up to find one of his least favorite people, Liene, sitting in front of him, an event that, on any other day, would have been an impossibility.

"What are you sitting down here for Liene?"

"Everywhere else is taken." Jack opened his mouth to retort, before doing a double-take and looking around. Indeed, all other available seats had been taken, with the mechanics taking up three tables by themselves, the crew and officers occupying another two, and the refugees and Orb volunteers occupying the rest.

"Damn. What's going on?"

"The head chef threatened to start serving his 'Exotic Recipe' if everyone didn't eat breakfast and enjoy it. So, everyone came and started eating, hoping to exhaust their stores of 'healthy' ingredients." Jack shuddered. That particular food, forever to be cursed to never be named aloud, was at the same time amazingly delicious and horrifyingly disgusting. Rumor had it that one of the ingredients was an addictive chemical distilled from quantities of fermenting grapes, crushed spiders, and the ashes of a sock that had been sitting in a septic tank for three decades. Of course, it was all speculation, but you had to wonder.....Both Coordinators shuddered, before continuing to eat.

**7:00 A.M.: Deride OMNI Enforcer's mobile weapon designs**

"Alright, now this is just stupid. Why the hell would you put the thinnest part of the armor on the _forward_ section of the mobile suit? That's the stupidest thing I've seen in my long hours of study." Jack seethed, jabbing his finger at the torn armor of the Constantine's cockpit section. The spectators leaned in, getting a closer look at the slagged metal. Indeed, the armor was ridiculously thin compared to the ZAFT mobile suits and Gundam, the thinnest of which was about as thick as a gorilla's arm. "And here! What nitwit thought to put the damned CIWS guns _inside_ the head? Those things are needed within seconds, all of which would be wasted during the time it took for the fucking guns to emerge!" The rant continued for long minutes, with the mechanics noting everything they missed.

**7:30 A.M.: Deride OMNI Enforcer's fleet tactics**

"I knew Krowhart was a coward, but this is just stupid. He knew we were coming. He knew that we slaughtered the Task Group that attacked the Silverwind within minutes. And what did he do? He arrayed the entirety of his fleet against us, plain for all to see. He didn't even deploy his Constantines until Kira and Athrun got close to him, when they could have launched them earlier, used them to keep the two of them pinned until the Agamemnons could get a decent target lock." Jack muttered, reviewing the combat footage from the Gundams, the Shadowfax, and the Barachiel.

**8:00 A.M. - 11:00 A.M.: Practice fighting for life**

"GAH!" Jack screamed as Kira punted him into the wall. As his back slammed into the wall of the sparring arena, there was a large cracking sound.

"GAAHGGHAAGGAAHHAGHAGFUCK!" Jack screamed, writhing on the floor in pain.

"Jack! Are you alright!?" Kira asked, rushing over to his friend. At that point, Jack raised his foot, and gave Kira a good kick in the unmentionables. The Prince of Orb clutched at his crotch and fell to his knees, groaning, as Jack took to his feet, gloating.

"Hah! You know, after five years of using that trick, I didn't think it'd work this-" In the middle of Jacks gloating, Kira removed his hands from his groin and gave Jack two quick jabs to the same area. Now, Jack was writhing on the ground, squealing in a high soprano as Kira got back on his feet.

"How!?" Jack squeaked out.

"Protective crotch padding." Kira answered. "And two solid titanium knuckle dusters."

**11:00 A.M. - 6:00 P.M.: Eat lunch, Wait for a dangerous situation to occur requiring piloting skills, think up various mobile weapon designs, or, prank Liene**

Jack snickered as he watched Liene turn on the tablet computer he always carried with him. What Liene didn't know, however, was that Jack had loaded a virus onto it, and couldn't wait to see how the engineer reacted.

Out of context, the reaction wasn't all that much, with just a slight slack-jaw and a loosening of fingers. To those who knew Liene however, it was priceless, especially the dumbfounded look in his eyes. Silently snickering, Jack slid along the wall, heading towards his quarters to wait for the crisis that his pessimistic side insisted was going to happen. Thus, he didn't notice Liene's eyes surreptitiously slide to where he'd been hiding before darting over to Kira, who'd been hiding in the shadows of the corner. At the Orb Prince's nod, Liene ceased his act and followed Jack, Kira right behind him.

-One hour later-

As the screams began, the crew and refugees/volunteers automatically inserted their ear plugs, persisting in their current duties. After the first five incidents, all had agreed that it was better to be deaf than hear that series of soul-wrenching and horrifying screams, shrieks, and shrill cries. How Kira and Line managed to get Jack to produce such a variety of sounds, they were better off not knowing.

**6:00 P.M.: Eat Dinner**

The crew had long since gotten past wondering how Jack was in any physical (or psychological, as the case may be) condition to show up in time for dinner after the presumed daily torture sessions of both Kira and Liene in retaliation for the numerous pranks.

To tell the truth, they had never gotten to that point, instead being bewildered as to how the Coordinator could happily scarf down the anonymous substance delicately termed 'food' that the head chef provided for dinner. At first, they had gathered around, staring at him until he grunted in a vaguely threatening (maybe merely displeased) manner. Now, they treated him more like the dog that sat under the family table to whom the kids fed undesired tidbits to. This consisted of them eating a few micro-bites of the slop before scraping into one big clump and walking to return the tray, surreptitiously dropped the clump onto Jack's tray. Then, afterwards, they went to the apprentice cooks for a more wholesome meal.

**7:00 P.M.: Go to Sleep**

After all these years, Kira was still nervous about handcuffing his friend to his bunk and then strapping him to it with chains. It just didn't feel right. And the public humiliation and rumors if anyone saw him doing this.

A/N: Well, I figured some people might have been curious. Also, there really aren't all that many people reviewing (Thank you, by the way, G. Wagers and Velshard.) Seriously, review. I'll type faster. Heck, I might even get the Phases out on a once-every-two-days schedule. (unlikely, but its even less likely if I don't think people are reading this) Well, at least I'm not Maderfole, getting three reviews every ten thousand word chapter.

G. Wagers: Fooled ya!


	15. Phase 09: Tiger's Fang

Gundam Seed: Killer's Realm

Phase 09: Tiger's Fang

**North Africa, Sahara Desert**

**January 29th, 11:38 A.M. Local Time, 9:38 P.M. Orb Time**

The catapult fired, launching the Augury with its grim-looking Kuro Tenshi pack into the sky. The Gundam's new thrusters flared, causing the already fast-moving mobile suit to dash across the sky, passing the marching Constantines on the ground. For a few moments, Kira was stunned by the sudden G-forces acting on his body, seemingly attempting to squash him into the seat for daring to control such power. Then he recovered, pushing the Augury into a smooth, controlled arc of a turn, coming around to face the OMNI force. fifteen Constantines and thirty Megalodons faced him back, targeting systems locking on. The Megalodons fired their missiles, a swarm numbering in the dozens, each with enough power to blow a ZONGS in half. Kira did something that astonished the OMNI pilots. He charged the Augury straight at the missiles, angling slightly down. As the Augury came within twenty meters of the ground, the missiles closing in, the Gundam's legs kicked out, in front of it, the harsh glare of the thrusters increasing as Kira fed power to them. Then, the legs dropped, to a position that, had the Augury's legs been touching the ground, been called standing. However, the feet remained about twenty centimeters off of the sandy desert ground, even as the Augury's momentum continued to push it forward. The missiles lost him, the EWACS messing with their targeting computers, making them unable to compensate for the quick acceleration and then deceleration, as well as the abrupt change in trajectory, their thrusters plowing them into the sand before detonation.

Then the Ramjet booster-enhanced thrusters on the Kuro Tenshi's main pack made themselves known, acting in coordination with the Augury's new back thrusters to propel the Gundam forward, the hovering mobile suit speeding towards the OMNI units. Beams and linear rounds streaked past the Augury, requiring little maneuvering for the fast-moving mobile suit to avoid. Then the Megalodons charged, throwing up clouds of sand in their wake. Beam saws spinning, the front two jumping forward, attempting to slice the Augury in half. The Gundam sliced both in half along their noses with the Phase-Shifted edge of the shield. A Constantine armed with a beam sniper rifle dropped to one knee, aiming the weapon at the Gundam. Quickly, the shield came up, the Kamikaze firing a single shell. Now, unlike the Highly Explosive and Super Hot thermesium rounds, this one was a simple full metal jacket round, consisting of a lead interior completely encased in a titanium and carbon alloy.

The extreme heat from the Kamikaze fused the metals, pretty much melting the lead, which heated up the alloy to almost, but not quite, melting temperature, being about five degrees Kelvin too cool. The result was a smoldering hole punched straight through the cockpit of the Constantine, with the projectile piercing through the upper cockpit of another, unlucky, mobile suit before smashing the head of a third and final Constantine off, landing in the sand. Naturally, all of the mobile suits stopped to stare, whereas the oblivious Megalodons continued on their path, the destruction of the Constantines out of sight and out of mind.

As the next set of Megalodons approached, Kira had the Augury draw the Excalibur. The blade came to life, the monomolecular edges humming slightly as the high-frequency vibration systems started up, followed a bit later by the beam blade. Now, unlike other melee beam weapons, the Excalibur's magnetic fields did not merely contain the plasma, holding it close to the physical blade. No, instead, by moving the internal micro-electromagnets that emanated the field, the plasma traveled along the blade, held fast by the powerful magnetic fields, eventually entering the guard from where it originated. This created a chainsaw-like effect, wherein the ions and free electrons smashed into and through interdicting matter, generally transferring both thermal and kinetic energy upon impact. On the super-molecular scale, this had little effect. On the sub-molecular scale however, the continuous impacts from the plasma caused the molecular bonds to weaken quickly, with entire molecules breaking apart. Basically, by the time the actual, physical blade touched the material in question, it was about as sturdy as heated gold, and that's if it managed to survive the chainsaw-like beam blade.

The Megalodon pilots, thinking nothing of the black and silver sword with the blue-white beam blade, activated their beam saws, leaping out of the sand to attempt to finish what their compatriots had started, the forward most Megalodon going for the Augury's neck while the other two targeted its legs. The first one was simply sliced down the middle, the dual beam and physical blades of the Excalibur easily passing through the comparatively weak alloys that the armor's structure and armor consisted of. The Megalodon on the right was dealt with as quickly, the Excalibur hacking through one side and out the other. The Megalodon targeting the left leg was blasted with a round from the Kamikaze's second barrel. Unlike the full metal jacket shells in the first barrel, which were designed to penetrate armor much thicker than that of mobile weapons, this frangible shell was designed to disintegrate on impact, doing very little real damage to the Megalodon's armor.

This was perfect, allowing the hundreds of 5mm superheated steel flechettes embedded into the solid round to continue to travel at the speed that the Kamikaze had fired the round at, spreading out from the impact point like a point-blank shotgun blast. The flechettes ripped their way through the Megalodon's armor, some getting caught in the denser parts, but the majority retaining enough momentum to tear straight through the unfortunate OMNI pilot and whatever else within the general impact zone of the frangible round, many of them even managing to emerge through the other side of the mobile armor.

At this point, the other pilots of the OMNI force had enough of the Augury, and decided to attack the heavily armed and armored warship, an action that would most certainly have increased their life expectancy by a few minutes were it not for the presence of the Kiba.

With its Mirage Colloid cloak activated, the Kiba appeared to be little more than a hazy mirage to both cameras and sensors, the low-density cloud of Mirage Colloid particles interfering with light and radio waves. As a result, the Constantines closest to the Gundam were unable to achieve a satisfactory target lock before the Kiba closed in, their bursts of beam weapon fire going aimlessly into the distance as Chimamare used the Kiba's Chilongs to mercilessly maul them.

The first Constantine to be targeted by Chimamare fired its SMG wildly, trying to get a bead on the fast-moving Gundam, and missing terribly. The Kiba's response was to leap onto the Constantine's chest, stab it several times in the cockpit, and then run for the next one. This Constantine had thrown its weapon away, drawing its beam saber and beam pistol. The quick reactions of Chimamare saved the Kiba's head from the beam saber slice, even as he deftly avoided the fire of the pistol. The Kiba's claws swept in towards the OMNI unit, even as it prepared to move on to the next victim. What happened instead, was the Constantine's quick movement briefly saving its life even as two Megalodon's turned their attention on the silver Gundam in their midst.

In an attempt to save their still endangered Constantine comrade, they charged the Kiba, railguns firing and missiles launching. Almost lazily, the Kiba lifted its head at the missiles, CIWS firing and destroying them even as the high-velocity railgun rounds impacted uselessly against its armor. The instant gulp of energy taken by the Phase Shift Armor to resist those impacts was by no means small, but Chimamare figured that the Gundam wouldn't really need it. He blasted the two mobile armors with the 'Nidhoggr', chuckling at the pretty explosions even as he skewered the Constantine on the Kiba's claws.

Behind the Kiba, Rau's Charcharius flew into battle, Ratus shield spitting a deadly hail of 80mm bullets into the armor of the Megalodons. As it landed, the Magra flickered out from its housing under the right forearm, slicing the head of a Constantine off before darting down to intercept the slice of another Constantine's beam saber. Even as Rau blocked this attack, the Ratus' heat blade slide out, smoothly cutting a Constantine's arm off even as the grenade launcher fired an incendiary into it's face. As the mobile suit with the beam saber drew back, Rau took a step forward, slicing in with the Magra. Surprisingly, the beam saber intercepted the slice, even as the CIWS slid out from their holdings in the Constantine's head to pepper uselessly at the Charcharius' chest. The SCAU-XU retaliated with an 80mm burst followed by a stab from the Ratus' built-in heat blade, finishing by cutting the OMNI suit into four with a vertical slash then a horizontal slash.

To the Constantine pilot sneaking up on the Charcharius, life was just about to get better. He was about to destroy a prototype ZAFT suit, which, going by the coloring, was piloted by Rau Le Creuset himself! In a single stroke, he would greatly improve his lot in life, currying favor with the Blue Cosmos higher-ups. Or he would have, if the Noctoraptor's Aculeus pile driver hadn't slammed through the lower torso while its beam saber sub arms sliced through the cockpit. Before fading, Nicol shot two Megalodons leaping for the Charcharius with the left Trikeros' beam rifle before fading, reappearing to blast a Constantine at close range with the shield carbines.

One Constantine, running away, failed to notice the large and dangerous Gundam closing in on it from above, until said Gundam landed directly on its back, pretty much crushing the cockpit and its occupying pilot. Chuckling a bit, Dearka targeted a singularly unlucky trio of Megalodons with the Shredder, pretty much tearing the mobile armors into holey husks. Aiming and shooting with the Big Earl caused a Constantine's entire upper torso to explode, while an Equalizer Armor Piercing round slammed through a Megalodon and a Constantine's leg.

Next to the Ferox, Yzak in the Enmity defended his teammate from the friends of the crushed Constantine, blocking beam sabers with the Fafnir while he intercepted beams with the shield. As one got too close, he slammed it with the shield, hacking at the SMG of another while the missile launcher fired off two High Explosive warheads. Then Yzak noticed was the Anti-Ship Sword slicing in at his back. All of a sudden, a white-hot silver spike erupted from the torso of the Constantine wielding the sword, ripping through the cockpit before some blades popped out from the spike's base, causing the weapon to drag the metal corpse with it as the Kiba reeled in its latest kill.

Aside from muttering a bit, Yzak failed to react to the save appropriately, as he was still fending off the other two. Gritting his teeth, Yzak forced himself to stay calm, just until he managed to slaughter these two OMNI soldiers. The Constantine he slammed came back with a vengeance, flourishing its beam saber in a skilled manner, impressing Yzak for a moment.

Then he stabbed the mobile suit, not bothering with anything fancy even as he kicked the other one in the torso, shooting it with the Grendel.

On the other side of the 'crater', the ten Constantines and twenty Megalodon's crept along the edge, most of the Constantine's armed with Pulsed Tactical High-Energy Lasers, Dual Beam Cannons, or Railcannons. Piloting each and every OMNI unit was a soldier who was very, very glad that they had been chosen for this sneak attack mission. Their objective was simple: while their compatriots distracted (were slaughtered by) the Gundams, they would attack the Barachiel, targeting bridge and engines first.

As a sort of prize for being the lucky ones who had the less dangerous duty, they had been given a more-complete version of the Constantine. What most people didn't know was that OMNI's current Constantine's were incomplete, missing several somewhat less-than-vital but still-very-important components, causing their performance to be less than spectacular. The ones the strike force had though, while still incomplete, now had the standard Mortar on their back. They had only a few shots with it, although the High Explosive Incendiary rounds had been promised to deal more than enough destruction to compensate for the lacking sustainability. Hopeful, and seeing a bright future, the OMNI pilots surged their units up the side of a large dune, from where they would assault the infamous assault carrier, carving their names in the books of history.

Then they saw them.

A force of perhaps ten standard GAHMU's, all in desert camouflage, led by one colored orange and yellow, and the bloody-red Bastion Gundam. Already, some of the pilots felt their knees go weak.

And that was before the Shadowfax swept in from above, Linear Repeaters firing swarms of high-velocity bullets and micro-missile launchers releasing some rather deadly ordnance. At least two Constantines were destroyed, armor ripped apart by the bullets before the missiles arced in, scattering the debris once called a mobile suit all over the sand. Maybe three Megalodons bit the dust, although the Constantine pilots were damned if they knew, the mobile armors having dove deep, deep, _deep_ into the sand at the first sign of impending doom.

In the Shadowfax, Mu grumbled a bit at the decreased performance of his precious mobile armor, atmospheric friction drastically decreasing his maneuverability. Even with the SCRamjets on, it was painfully hindering. Of course, Mu could turn on the Positron Pulse Detonation Engine, but the warnings from Liene kinda worried him.....heck, why not? He flipped the switch. At first there was a few disappointing seconds where nothing happened....then, the sudden burst of speed jerked Mu back in his seat, leaving behind a thought. The Hawk could literally feel his bones vibrating, even the three in each of his ears. Hurriedly, Mu booted up the program that Liene said would allow him to move more adroitly with this monster of an engine. Immediately, the speed went from 'oh my god, my spine's vertebrae are fusing together' to 'fuck, my ribs are slicing my lungs apart'.

Down below, Athrun, Waltfeld, and the other GAHMU's shook off their amazement at the Shadowfax's altitude going from three hundred to eight hundred meters in less than three seconds, and started going after the Constantines. Before the OMNI mobile suits gathered themselves, the Bastion's Tonbogiri sliced one wielding a P-THEL in half, before the Rudra blasted one using Dual Beam Cannons in the torso. To the side, Waltfeld's GAHMU sliced through two Constantine's at once, with the beam weapons controlled by Aisha shooting at a trio of OMNI suits with better reaction times, the three ducking down at once, letting the beams pass over. Before any of the other GAHMUs, a few meters behind the Gundam and Custom GAHMU, could get any closer, the Megalodons popped up like Shamu doing a trick for fish. Their efforts ended rather easily, with beam saws parried by head beam sabers, missiles intercepted by Gatling fire, and railgun shots rather deftly dodged by the extremely maneuverable GAHMUs. Essentially, the entire Megalodon assault ended as though large tuna had tried to attack a tiger. Mere moments later, the common GAHMUs, each piloted by a ZAFT Redcoat, turned from the broken and lackluster heaps of metal formerly called Megalodons to the battle being fought on the dune.

The Bastion practically danced around the Constantines, avoiding laser and beam and railcannon round as easily as one would the jab of a cane wielded by an especially out-of-sorts elderly person. Every once in a while, the Tonbogiri slashed out, or the Rudra fired, and a Constantine toppled, headless, limbless, or torsoless. A little off to the side, Waltfelds GAHMU darted in and around at the fringe of the fight, beam sabers biting into Constantines or hacking away with the leg spikes usually used for small-degree turns. When one Constantine actually managed to aim its P-THEL at the GAHMU, Watlfeld's Gatling gun roared, chewing the weapon apart before three beams pierced the mobile suit through.

At this point, about five Constantines were left, surrounded by the Bastion and the GAHMUs. Before any of the ZAFT suits could react, the Shadowfax blazed through above them, micro-missiles and linear rounds pretty much mulching the Constantines.

"Um....Mu, what was the point of that?" Athrun asked.

"Just making sure I made a good account of myself." Mu replied

00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 – Quis est a Iuguolo nisi a Iuguolo? – 000000000000000000000000000000000000000

A/N: Stopping here cause... well, to be honest, I kinda forgot about Killer's Realm for a bit. Visiting relatives and all that.....

Anyway, hope you guys liked the battle, and to answer a question before it gets posed: The Kuro Tenshi is not the Freedom replacement, although I like to think that the Freedom wouldn't have been able to deal with it were they ever to fight. But no, the Freedom replacement is going to be several degrees of magnitude more dangerous, threatening, and generally more bad-ass.

Velshard: Speaking of which, you haven't told me what you thought of the Omen (don't reply to this in your review, want to keep it a secret from the others)

G. Wagers: I like tech files. I feel they give a more in depth explanation of the mobile suit/armor's capabilities than any of the characters can on the spot (although I think I'll be hard pressed to beat Liene's explanation).

Nxkris: It's an Omake. Of course it's dumb.


	16. Technical File 03

File 03

Equipment Pack **XEP-0511X**

_Kuro Tenshi_

Unit Type: Extended Operation Multi-Range Interception/Scouting and Discriminate Destruction Pack

Main Armaments: 1 x "Excalibur" Double-Edge Beam Longsword  
1 x Phase-Shift Edged Anti-Beam Shield with "Kamikaze" 150mm Specialized Dual-Barrel Railgun  
1 x 25mm Forearm Beam Carbine

Equipment: 1 x EWACS

Equipment (Add-ons): 2 x Ramjet Boosters  
6 x Thrusters

Bio: The Kurotenshi pack is as much of an upgrade as possible for the Augury without extensively overhauling the mobile suit itself. In order to use the pack, the Augury's Phase Shift voltage has to be set to an extremely low state, rendering the unit black. This is to provide additional power to the multiple Ramjet boosted thrusters the main pack hosts in wing-like structures, as well as the standard thrusters and add-ons.

The Kurotenshi's only apparent weapon is the Excalibur Double-Edge Beam Longsword, which is effectively a much larger, much more potent version of the Cavalier Pack's Clarent Anti-Ship Sword, measuring at ten meters long and two-thirds of a meter wide. A distinguishing feature, however, is that the beams are actually cycled around the blade by magnetic fields, creating a chainsaw-like effect. This increases the penetration of the Excalibur, allowing it to slice through most common alloys.

However, the Anti-Beam Shield, which is larger than other similar units by a half, incorporates a unique weapons system into its ventral surface. Just above the place where the shield connects to the forearm is a dual barrel Railgun, with a top muzzle velocity almost equaling the Ballistra. What makes this one different from others is that it is made of a special (and expensive) alloy that takes enormous amounts of heat to melt, needed due to the purposeful extraordinary amounts of heat produced by the Railgun's operation. The ammunition fired by this weapon is also different, constructed of a small super-compressed high-explosive material encased in two layers of depleted uranium and tungsten-silicon alloy, which is in turn covered by a case of a costly artificial magnesium allotrope called thermesium. When fired, the excess heat literally ionizes the already super-heated thermesium, turning it into dense plasma. The plasma is fired along with the projectile, adhering to the natural magnetic field exerted by it. Heated to extreme temperatures, it is capable of melting through almost everything, practically dissolving armor and allowing the following round to enter the target, the high-explosives detonating mere milliseconds after initial impact. The weapon, called the Kamikaze, is capable of penetrating all kinds of armor, including Phase-Shift. It is also capable of firing the shells without ionizing the thermesium, saving energy (if not money). Also, it can still fire other rounds, among them special depleted-uranium HEAP shells, 'Shogun' frangible flechette rounds, and Teflon-coated Kinetic Penetrator sniper rounds

The shield itself is also a unique weapon, with it's monomolecular edge of highly compressed Phase Shifted Alloys, it is capable of slicing through most materials

Another weapon is the 25mm Beam Carbine, a smaller, less powerful and more stream-lined and efficient version of the standard beam rifle mounted on the forearm. The Beam Carbine fires at a rate of about 300 beams per minute, each one about a fifth the energy of a standard beam. It has different firing modes as well, firing in semi-automatic, burst, or automatic modes. In the semi-automatic mode, the carbine can charge its beams for more power, allowing it to fire exactly like a beam rifle.

The Kurotenshi pack hosts a larger backpack module than other equipment packs, in order to make room for the wing-mounted extra verniers and the larger energy capacitors, which effectively doubles the Augury's normal operation time than if it had a normal capacitor. Along with the larger capacitors, the pack also has four rechargeable paper batteries, essentially blocks of cellulose threaded with carbon nanotubes. The nature of the battery ensures a relatively safe supply of energy for the Augury when the Kuro Tenshi pack is equipped, doubling the already doubled operation time of the pack.

For support, the Kuro Tenshi utilizes an improved version of the Angelos' EWACS in the shape of a second, smaller, V-fin, which now includes satellite hacking and quantum communication. It also houses a new camera system in the junction where the arms of the V-fin, using magnetic resonance imagers, ultraviolet lenses, and other such devices to improve the visual sensors.

**PGAT-001**

_Constantine_

Unit Type: Mass-Production Mobile Suit

Manufacturer: Azrael Industries

Operator: OMNI Enforcer

Height: 17.6 Meters

Weight: 65.9 Metric Tons

Armor: Titanium/Carbon Alloy

Power Source: Ultra-Compact Rechargeable Energy Battery

Propulsion: Multiple Plasma Verniers

Operating System: Standard High-performance Interfaced Transintelligence

Special Systems: AMBAC

Equipment and Design Features: Equipment Pack hardpoints  
Laminated Armor  
Anti-Beam Shield (Optional)

Fixed Armaments (Standard): 2 x 85mm CIWS  
1 x Back-Mounted Mortar

Hand Armaments (Standard): 1 x 50mm 'Sparta' Rail Assault Rifle or 1 x Beam SMG  
1 x beam sabers  
1 x beam pistol

Pack Armaments: 30mm Beam Sniper Rifle  
180mm Railcannon  
Tactical Missile Launchers  
Strategic Missile Launchers  
Pulsed Tactical High-Energy Laser  
Anti-Ship Sword  
Dual Beam Cannons  
45mm Beam Rifle w/ Linear Grenade Launcher

Bio: Before the G Project, OMNI's flagship mobile suit project was Project Byzantine, designed to create designs of mobile suits easily mass-producable with the ability to adapt easily. Some of the designs did not fit into these criteria, and were shelved. These designs later became the inspiration for Halberton's G Project, which was meant to produce more advanced mobile suits with the intent of producing more specialized units in the form of the Bastion, the Enmity, the Noctoraptor, the Ferox, and the Kiba (although the last was more an accidental creation by Orb). The Augury was created as a hihgly-advanced version of the prototype, which then used information from the Augury trials to enhance its abilities in a sort of feedback loop.

The result was Azrael Industries Constantine, a mobile suit based off of the ZONGS' basic frame, with modifications developed from the Augury's data. The armor takes its physical design from that of medieval knightly armor, with similar sections and the like. The right pauldron extends down from the shoulder to about elbow length, and has been treated with an anti-beam compound similar to that of the Anti-Beam Shields. The camera units are located on the ends of the four 'arms' of the crucifix-shaped visor, and possess the ability to simultaneously view in several different spectrums of light. Most of the armor is rather angular, made so to deflect both solid and beam projectiles.

The Constantine's standard fixed weapons consist of head-based CIWS guns, usually stored inside the head under armor plates, a Mortar based on the back capable of firing several different rounds.

The hand armaments are a choice between the new-fangled 'Sparta' Rail Assault Rifle, a new rifle using more-advanced capacitors and magnetic materials to allow the acceleration of projectiles at velocities allowing them to impact with kinetic energy far greater than an equivalently sized normal assault rifle. This weapon was _supposed_ to be one of the few technological advances OMNI had over ZAFT, but the appearence of the Charcharius SCAU-XU and its linear assault rifle with thermal bayonet pre-empted this. The other main armament is the 30mm beam SMG, which fires faster than the beam rifles used by the Gundams, but with much less power. Also, the Constantine has one beam saber and a weaker version of the Augury's Dylandy beam pistol sheathed/holstered on its hips.

Like the Augury, the Constantine has the capability to use Equipment packs to quickly switch battlefield roles, although the enhancements are far less specialized, merely changing its abilities in regards to weapons instead of augmenting the mobile suits base abilities. Some of them, including the 'Assault' pack, also equip the Constantine with some special equipment, but the majority is just weapon differences.

The first ever deployment of the Constantine was when the elite special operations group, 'The Watchers', deployed ten in order to observe the Augury and Kiba in action and obtain information in order to complete the nascent Natural Operating System. At the time, the system was incomplete, causing the Constantine's initial operation to be...lackluster. However, with the data from that initial encounter, OMNI's programmers have completed the OS, and Constantines are being deployed around the Earth and in space.

The first few production Constantines were unfinished, with most of them missing parts that would have improved their performance. By Januray 10th, 71 C.E., complete Constantines were being manufactured and shipped out to bases staffed with trained pilots. As a result, the war, which had been slightly tipped towards ZAFT, began to go more OMNI's way with the large numbers of Constantines paving the way for more OMNI victories, even after the temporary technical edge in their beam weapons and laminated armor was eliminated by ZAFT's incorporation of those technologies into their newer mobile suits.

Future enhancements have been planned for the Constantine, hoping to eventually defeat ZAFT's enhanced technology, as well as to eventually make mobile suits equal in performance to that of the Gundams. Supposedly, one of these enhanced Constantines has already been deployed, in service of the secretive military organization, the Watchers, and rumors state that it easily mauled a contingent of ZAFT mobile suits in North Africa.

For the BuCUE/LaGOWE Replacement

Original Mechanical Designer: Velshard

TMF/A-402

_GAHMU_ (Ground Attack High-Mobility Unit)

Pilot: Kirkwood, Maylam, Hadat(otherwise known as cannon fodder), Andrew Waltfeld,

Unit Type: Mass Production Ground Assault Mobile Suit

Manufacturer: ZAFT controlled Maius Military Industries (MMI ZAFT armament designer)

Operators: ZAFT (Zodiac Alliance of Freedom Treaty)  
various civilians

Height: 11.5 meters (base of turret)

Weight: 64.9-87.5 metric tons (varies upon armament)

Accommodations: Pilot and passenger or pilot and copilot/gunner

Armor materials: Laminated Carbon Fiber and Kevlar, interwoven with Titanium Strands & Super Chobham

Power Source: Ultra Compact Rechargeable Energy Battery

Propulsion: Leg Mounted Linear Magnetic Tracks

Operating System: Composite Rapid-Action Program

Special Systems: Networked Assault System

Equipment and Design Features: 1 x periscope, mounted in head  
Sonar and Ground Audio Receiver System  
4 x Weapons/Equipment hard point, 2 on each shoulder and thigh  
2 x Equipment hard points, on flanks  
1 x triple hard point multi-armament turret  
1 x tail unit balancer

Permanent Fixed Armaments: 1 x GAU2357 7-barrel 35mm anti-armor Gatling gun, mounted under head, 4900 rounds  
1 x 25mm multi-barrel CIWS, mounted on back between front legs  
1 x double-edged beam saber mounted in head  
1 x 356mm triple barrel 9-shot ground torpedo launcher, mounted under main body  
4 x anti-personnel grenade launchers, mounted in each shoulder and thigh  
4 x smoke discharger, built in to each shoulder and thigh  
4 x Leg-Spike, mounted inside feet  
1 x Guided Electromagnetic Tow Cable, mounted in tail unit;

Optional Fixed Armaments, Shoulders & Thighs: M65 "Felis" 8-barrel small missile launcher, mounts on shoulders and thighs  
M68 "Pardus" 3-barrel missile launcher, mounts on shoulders and thighs  
M71 "Tessis" 64mm triple barrel vulcan gun, stores 450 rounds, mounts on shoulders only(essentially a modified version of the CGUE's shield vulcan)  
M73 "Furca" single shot long-range cruise missile launcher, mounts on shoulders and thighs.

Optional Fixed Armaments, Multi-Armament Turret Large hard point: M62 "Thunga" 300mm Linear Artillery Cannon  
M63 "Belga" 5-barrel 76mm Gatling gun  
M72 "Lupus" Ion particle beam sniper rifle (the sniper rifle used by the original LRR GINN)  
M74 "Cattus" 500mm recoilless rifle  
M75 "Halis" 210mm MLRS (Multiple Launch Rocket System) 19 tubes 4 shots each  
M76 "Furcas" 2-shot cruise missile launcher  
M77 "Badis" 3-tube 3-shot, Large missile launcher, 9 missiles total  
M78 "Hadis" 4-tube 4-shot, Medium missile launcher, 16 missiles total  
MMI-M8A3 76mm heavy assault machine gun  
MMI-M9A1 133mm battle rifle (basically a bigger version of the M8A3 that favors precision and power over rapid fire)  
MMX-TL80 54mm high-energy beam rifle (design is a smaller more compact version of the Providence Gundam's beam rifle)

Optional Fixed Armaments, Multi-Armament Turret Small hard points: M76 "Furcas" 2-shot cruise missile launcher  
M77 "Badis" 3-tube 3-shot, Large missile launcher, 9 missiles total  
M78 "Hadis" 4-tube 4-shot, Medium missile launcher, 16 missiles total  
MMI-M8A3 76mm heavy assault machine gun  
MMI-M9A1 133mm battle rifle (basically a bigger version of the M8A3 that favors precision and power over rapid fire)  
MMX-TL80 54mm high-energy beam rifle (design is a smaller more compact version of the Providence Gundam's beam rifle);

Bio: As the Bloody Valentine War begins to intensify and extend its reach to Earth, ZAFT begins producing specific mobile weapons for certain environments. The GAHMU is one of the main weapons of ZAFT's ground forces, it's quadruped design makes it ideal for combat in almost any surface environment, thanks to the incredible agility and stability it's design offers. Learning from the mistakes made in previous machines the GAHMU has adapted perhaps all of the best features of its progenitor's designs to its own while improving its overall versatility and adaptability.

The GAHMU's construction is entirely modular, much like the original ZAMS. Its head, forward torso, rearward torso, tail unit, upper legs, and lower legs can all be swapped out with new or specialized parts within the span of a few minutes even during in-field operations.

Taking a cue from the AMF-201 IAAMS, the GAHMU's armor is mostly made from the same lightweight material, reinforced by sections of Super Chobham over critical areas in order to decrease its overall weight and increase its speed and agility. The Armor is also made almost entirely made into curved and rounded surfaces, both to minimize air resistance and increase the armors defensive capabilities. Because of the round surfaces and oblique angles projectile weapons have a much greater probability of deflecting off the GAHMU's armor. Additionally the armor's shape causes a collapsing affect around rounds that managed to penetrate the armor significantly reducing their kinetic energy and decreasing the chance of serious damage being done to the machine's internal workings.

The GAHMU's head contains two armaments, a double edged beam saber, in the general area of what would be the unit's muzzle was retrofitted on to all current and later models after ZAFT acquired beam saber technology from their stolen Gundams. Under the GAHMU's "jaw", and perhaps its most distinctive feature, is a 35mm Gatling gun that fires Teflon coated Tungsten Carbide slugs with depleted uranium cores at speeds between 1800 rounds a minute to 4300 rd/min. This cannon is wickedly effective against soft targets, and can literally reduce OMNI linear tanks and bunkers to nothing more than metal and ceramic confetti in the span of a few seconds. As a side note of interest, GAHMU pilots traditionally paint the image of a set of teeth filled jaws around the cowling of the machine's Gatling gun.

In terms of sensor systems the GAHMU is also no slouch, it's head contains a periscope as a standard scouting feature but takes a trick from the SCAU and equips two high resolution mono-eye cameras on either side of its head as well. Additionally it equips thermal imagers into most of its camera units to aid in target detection. Because of the N-jammers on Earth radar is all but useless; the Gahmu instead exchanges radar for a high performance 3-D sonar detection system that identifies possible friends and enemies based on target's shapes and densities over a wide area. Another device that aids in the GAHMU's detection abilities is the four high-performance subsurface audio receivers built into each foot. These devices pick up vibrations through the ground and using a specialized computer system that takes terrain and environmental conditions in to account, extrapolates where a target is and what it is based on the vibrations created by it's movement. The combined efforts of its sensor systems have proven to be very effective and reliable in target tracking and identification, combining that with its highly lethal armaments and general battlefield dominance, has resulted in the GAHMU being given the rather disturbing but suitable nickname "Death Stalker".

The GAHMU's tail unit's primary purpose is to act as a balancer, the same way a cat's tail would during high speed turns or powerful leaps and distant jumps. But seeing no reason to waste an appendage that could possibly have multiple uses the designers incorporated a guided electromagnetic tow cable into it. Primarily this device is simply intended to be used to tow various equipment palettes or even damaged or crippled mobile weapons, including other GAHMUs. Though some of the more inventive pilots have found an offensive application for it as well, by either using the cable to yank enemy MS or MA off their feet or even as a trip line for said machines.

The unit's legs also contain a number of valuable and multipurpose features; in the upper section of each leg is an anti-personnel grenade launcher that fires 70mm frag grenades that are even effective against light armor vehicles. The upper legs also contain large smoke generators that as well as providing the traditional smoke screen also interferes with most alternate detection methods, excluding the GAHMU's own sonar and audio detection systems. Traditionally smokescreens are used to cover a retreat or protect oneself from attack but the GAHMU uses it's offensively as well, allowing it to attack enemies during a detection blackout, further adding to the unit's infamous reputation. The GAHMU's feet are fairly long and a bit broad with multiple joints to promote better traction over different terrains, the end of each foot ends in a retractable leg spike that is primarily used as a secondary traction method for making more rapid turns. They can also be used to add more stability to the unit when firing larger more powerful weapons at standoff ranges and if necessary they may also be used as a close range weapon.

As a fairly standard design procedure amongst ZAFT units, on each of the GAHMU's shoulders and thighs is a hard point for equipping extra weapons or special equipment, though any missiles equipped to the thighs must be put into a vertical launch position to work safely.

On the back of each of the machines legs are Linear Magnetic Tracks (LMTs) that can propel the GAHMU at speeds in excess of 220kmh (about 138mph) on optimal terrain such as pavement. Originally it had proposed to equip the GAHMU with scale system pods on each leg but this was found to be unfeasible since outside of very alluvial soil, wetlands, or sand the scale system is all but useless. However this proposal was not completely abandoned, though the LMTs remain it's standard production equipment, special wetland use scale system equipped lower legs are still produced in limited quantities.

Equipped to the GAHMU's under body is a triple tube 9-shot high-accuracy ground torpedo launcher that fires 356mm HEAP (High Explosive Armor Piercing) warheads that are effective against most any target. Ground Torpedo is actually a metaphor, the weapon is actually a supersonic missile that flies only a few feet above the ground, relying on optical sensors to guide it to it's target safely without hitting an obstruction. By skimming so close to the ground the missile both avoids detection and adds to its probability in striking a target by confusing most CIWS because it hugs the ground so tightly up until it gets very close to its intended target.

On the unit's flanks between it's for and rear legs are equipment hard points for equipping different types of down force stabilizers or even special weapons. These wing like devices help to balance and stabilize the GAHMU as well while traveling at high speed. These wings often include plasma verniers of varying sizes and output to increase the unit's overall speed, they can also have additional sensor and stealth systems for units meant to operate as tactical reconnaissance machines. Or an even better use is down force stabilizers equipped with auxiliary power units to vastly extend the GAHMU's operational range and time.

In the center of the GAHMU's body is its Multi-Armament turret, it's location is meant to add greater stability to the unit when in use. This mobile turret has three hard points a larger more heavy duty central hard point on top of the turret for equipping heavier more unwieldy weapons and two smaller hard points on the outside of the turret for more easily managed weapons. The central hard point can still be equipped with lighter weapons but is primarily meant for carrying specially converted heavier armaments like the M62 "Thunga" 300mm Linear Artillery Cannon, usually mounted in tandem on the TFA-30 CUMAR or the M72 "Lupus" Ion particle beam sniper rifle normally used by ordinary MS. The weapons for the two small hard points are all hand carried armaments originally meant to be used by ZAFT's more standard MS but were cheaply modified to dock with the GAHMU's multi-armament turret and equipped with auxiliary energy capacitors for the beam weapons and belt fed magazines for the solid shell weapons.

Thanks to the GAHMU's brilliant and careful design the unit can bring a blistering amount of fire power onto a target nearly as well as it's much larger cousin the CUMAR can, at the cost of it's mobility. Often GAHMUs will be launched with a plethora of heavy weapons, which they'll use up as quickly as possible at long range before purging the heavier weapons before moving in to engage an enemy at closer range with their more moderate assault weapons.

Mounted on the GAHMU's back between it's front shoulders is a 25mm multi-barrel CIWS that is highly effective at destroying missiles coming at the machine from above, at it's flanks and from in front of the unit. Between the CIWS and the base of the multi-armament turret is the GAHMU's cockpit hatch on it's back, the GAHMU's cockpit is a two seater and is very well protected within the suits main body. The GAHMU was given a tandem cockpit for several reasons, the most important being increased survivability, by having a pilot and copilot/gunner the chances that the unit will be destroyed as the result of one pilot's lack of attention or mistake drastically decrease. Another bonus is the morale boost of having a fellow brother in arms in the cockpit with you during combat or long boring patrol/scouting missions.

The production cost of the GAHMU is admittedly significantly higher than most of ZAFT's other mass produced machines but due to the unit's incredible flexibility, combat performance, and survival ratio, the machines cost is more than justified. In the years since it's inception many new components and specialized equipment packages have been developed, allowing for it to function in most any role imaginable, as well as insuring that the unit will stay in the field for many years to come.

D/N: part of my inspiration for this suit comes from the A-10A Warthog aka Thunderbolt II tank killer, though that'll be pretty obvious to some just as the primary inspiration for the Noctoraptor was the F-117A Night Hawk, which was decommissioned in 2007. Primarily this unit is a blatant rip off of the BuCUE/LaGOWE with design changes that I thought would have been fairly cheap but made it a far more effective unit. The feet are essentially longer and slightly broader versions of the BuCUE's except with two joints in the foot so it could bend around surfaces obstructions for additional traction and the spike in the tip of each foot is from the TMF/TR-2 BuCUE Tactical Reconnaissance type, as for the tail unit, it kind of looks like the tail on the Shadow Fox from the anime Zoids. The armament turret is in roughly the same position as the LaGOWE's with the cockpit hatch just in front of it. As to the multi-armament turret just mix and match the weapons you like the most. Also because I thought it was stupid to make MS universally one color the GAHMU are painted in camouflage patterns that best match their environments.

– Quis est a Iuguolo nisi a Iuguolo? –

A/N: Yes, I suck at timetables. Give me a break though, it's summer. I get writer's block easy. Wow I sound pathetic. Anyway, short tech file here, mainly because Velshard's GAHMU dossier is quite a bit larger than usual.

FraserMage: Knew something was missing. I'll get right on it.

Nivek Beldo: Ah, no problem. It happens to everyone. As to seeing the Freedom replacement...Tell you what, you send me a basic idea for a replacement design for either the Calamity or the Forbidden, and I'll send it to you. As for the South Africa line...I dunno, that's kinda out of their way. Thank you.

G. Wagers: No worries, I have thick skin and I can take criticism. Sorry about this though. But, the next Phase should entertain you sufficiently, if I can get it up on time. And that depends on if this computer doesn't break down again.

Crelrn: Thank you.

Ah, weird people are milling around my front yard. I wonder what they're doing there...


	17. Phase 10: Praetor Revealed

Gundam Seed: Killer's Realm

Phase 10: Praetor Revealed

**North Africa, Sahara Desert, City**

**January 30th, 71 C.E., 9:08 A.M. Local Time, 7:08 P.M. Orb Time**

Abaddon watched as his subordinate glanced nervously about, almost seeming to shudder. In a way, Sariel's caution and paranoia was understandable. Here, in North Africa, they stuck out like sore thumbs. Both were rather pale, an effect from the combination of already pasty complexions and the Grigori's artificial lights. Also, Edward had the rather unique combination of black hair and blue eyes. And the sharply angled features of his face made him very recognizable to those who knew him. David, on the other hand, showed his distant Irish ancestry in his red hair and green eyes. Both shared the same short hair style, close to regulation length yet not quite there. Abaddon was dressed in his usual civilian clothes, white shirt and light blue pants, with steel-toed brown boots. Sariel, in an effort to adhere to his espionage and assassin training, wore clothing similar to the locals, consisting of a tan shirt, dark brown pants, and boots. Along with this went a tan hat and black sunglasses.

"Why are we here Edward? Not only is Andrew Waltfeld here, but Rau Le Creuset too! And let's not forget Kira Yamato..." David said, shuddering a bit as he said those names.

"It is precisely because they are here that our presence is necessitated David." Abaddon said. "Both Waltfeld and Le Creuset have been thorns in our sides for almost the entire war. And Yamato has proven to be a very, very troublesome person. Thus, we are here to judge just how much more damaging they may become, and if necessary, eliminate them." Sariel gulped then, because Abaddon's eyes seemed to gleam at that last part, with the irises seeming so much bigger.

-**About 25 meters East of Abaddon and Sariel**-

"Here we are!" Waltfeld declared happily, leading the group of himself, Kira, Liene, Jack, Cagalli, and Mu towards an open-air restaurant. After everyone settled down at a table, he ordered six kabobs for the whole group. Cagalli, Jack, and Mu practically drooled, whereas both Kira and Liene shared the same blank look.

"These things are great Kira!" Cagalli said to her brother, snatching a red condiment bottle out of the center of the table. "You just add a little of this chili sauce-"

"Woah! Hold up there miss." Waltfeld interrupted. "Chili sauce? Yogurt sauce is better, or rather-" He continued, grabbing a white condiment bottle. "It is the _only_ thing to put on kabobs."

"Where did you grow up Waltfeld?" Jack demanded. "As much as Cagalli and I disagree on... certain matters, we are united in this." Jack picked up a second red condiment bottle, exactly the same as the one Cagalli held. "Chili sauce is the best thing on these kabobs."

"You got a long way to go Jack." Mu said, picking up a second yogurt bottle. "I'm afraid I must agree with my colleague. Yogurt sauce is better." Pretty soon, the table was split into three groups: The Chili group, consisting of Cagalli and Jack, arguing for chili sauced kabobs, the Yogurt group, made up of Waltfeld and Mu, the two proclaiming for be-yogurted kabobs. And finally, the I-Really-Don't-Give-A-Fuck-And-Just-Want-To-Eat-And-Get-Out-Of-Here-Before-These-Idiots-Make-Me-Look-Like-I-Know-Any-Of-Them party, made solely of Liene and Kira, both of whom started eating, without sauce. Noticing this, both Chilis and Yogurts tried to spread their respective sauces on the neutral party's kabobs, intent on showing the Who-Gives-A-Fuck people that their sauce went best with kabobs. About all they managed was spraying Liene and Kira with a large quantity of both chili sauce and yogurt sauce.

"Oh shit." All four muttered simultaneously, as Liene and Kira assumed their respective threatening expressions. Liene's was a little smug, and extremely creepy. Kira's blank-faced look could have given an autonomous cybernetic organism specializing in termination of important individuals a run for its money. Before anything potentially dangerous could happen, someone yelled.

"For a pure and blue world!" This phrase caused Jack to kick the table on its side, grabbing Cagalli and Liene and shoving them behind it; Waltfeld and Mu to pull pistols out of hidden holsters, and Kira to draw the ever-present balisong knife. From around a building came several people carrying various weapons, ranging from assault rifles to old pistols. One was carrying a Molotov cocktail, rag lit, and threw it at the group.

Kira reached out, caught the makeshift grenade, and threw it at its former wielder, hitting him in the head. The Coordinator didn't even flinch when the Blue Cosmos thug started screaming, instead choosing to decapitate a guy approaching with a switchblade. Leaping out from behind the table, Kira charged a guy with an assault rifle, moving to avoid his aim. When in hand's reach, Kira grabbed the rifle, tugged the man off-balance, and sliced open his stomach. Flipping the assault rifle and grabbing the grip, the Orb Prince sprayed the approaching maniacs with a liberal dose of bullets, even while moving for some cover in the from of the adjacent building's wall.

Back at the table, Jack, Cagalli and Liene crouched behind the table with Mu and Waltfeld, the latter two popping up every now and then to take a few potshots at their assailants. Then, Jack noticed a guy with a headband peeking around the corner of the restaurant. Chimamare took over at that instant, propelling himself at the man. Said man turned around the corner, aiming a somewhat battered looking handgun. However, he wasn't fast enough to hit Chimamare, the alter wrapping his arm around the Blue Cosmos vigilante's head, jerking it until his neck broke with a sickening crack. Wrenching the handgun from the corpses grip, Chimamare then grabbed the body and held it up before him as a shield, firing the gun.

There were maybe five of the thugs left when Kisaka came on to the scene, followed by a troop of ZAFT soldiers led by Waltfeld's aide, DaCosta. Soon after that, the remnants were cleaned up, the single surviver taken to be........ 'questioned' later on.

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**Barachiel, Manufacturing Bay**

**10:15 A.M. Local Time, 8:15 P.M. Orb Time**

Liene frowned, a slight twitch of his lips as he comprehended exactly what was before him.

As with many of Jack's ideas, Liene's brain fritzed out before he got to the point.

"What is this?" Liene asked, very calmly at first glance.

"It's a beam rifle, with a chainsaw bayonet." Jack said happily, inspecting his creation. It was a Gundam-scale beam rifle, same as the one the Angelos pack used, or the Enmity's. However, instead of a grenade launcher, it had an enormous fang-shaped chainsaw with glittering, yes, _glittering_ teeth.

"Why would a beam rifle need a chainsaw for a bayonet?" Liene queried, still mulling this over.

"Well, you know how I need to sheath one of the Chilongs to use my beam rifle right?" Jack asked. At Liene's nod he moved on. "Well, if my other Chilong is occupied, and theres some other guy closing in too fast for me to get a shot off, I just rev this bayonet up, and no more threat." Liene just stared. "Look, they've got compressed diamond blades, frictionless rails, a high-efficiency motor...." Jack trailed off as Liene walked off to begin his own manufacturing.

There, Liene queued up his items, ones he'd spent quite some time since yesterday designing. Kira said they needed to make ZAFT their allies. Well, Liene had some things that would make them go head-over-heels for Orb.

**Barachiel, 2nd Hanger Deck**

**Thirteen Minutes Later**

"Damn, Kira, you certainly know how to handle yourself." Waltfeld said, shaking hands with Kira. The Prince of Orb smiled, a bit grim, considering the subject.

"I took self-defense classes two years ago, along with Jack." At this point, Cagalli strolled up to them, intent on trouble, or at least mild embarrassment.

"They spent so much time with their instructor that at one point, me and Father thought they were doing something naughty." Cagalli said gleefully, watching as Kira grimaced and Waltfeld stifled a laugh.

"You don't say.." Mu said, sauntering up.

"I always thought you looked at me strangely." Athrun commented, seeming to appear out of nowhere. Kira was against a corner, and knew it. Before he could refute the slandering words of Cagalli, the alarm, once again, sounded. Kira gave a quick glance towards Cagalli before dashing for the first deck. It was the same look they had shared in many moments throughout their lives. _Saved by the bell_.

As Kira reached the 1st deck, Jack ran right by, a gleeful look on his face as he hopped into the Kiba's cockpit. Passing by, Kira did a double-take as he saw the beam rifle with the diamond-toothed chainsaw. He had a brief moment of indecision, before he just dropped it and jogged to the Kuro Tenshi Augury. Before he actually got into the pre-launch procedures, Kira pulled out the keyboard and quickly skimmed over the changes he and Liene had been making to the Augury's operating system. Hopefully, they'd be able to use some of these changes to drastically increase the Augury's base capabilities.

"Hoy Kira, what ammo loadout?" Murdoch asked, sticking his head into the open cockpit.

"Erm.....Sniper KP in the first barrel and.....Frag HEAP in the second." Kira replied, sweeping his hands over the keyboard. Murdoch shook his head.

"Why don't you just drop a nuke on them while you're at it?" Kira actually seemed to pause.

"You know, if ZAFT made the Neutron Jammers, then they can make something to cancel their effect right? And even then, Liene and the rest of Morgenroete have been doing some experiments with Femtotechnology and Induced Gamma Emissions...."

"Woah! Stop there Kira. I was kidding." Murdoch interrupted. Kira seemed to be disappointed for a moment before he turned back to the keyboard. After a few more taps, he nodded at Murdoch, folding up the keyboard and starting to flip toggles, hit buttons, and enter codes. In less than twenty seconds, the Augury was powered up, Kamikaze and CIWS loaded, and without a dent. Kira stepped the Gundam into the catapult clamps at the same time as Chimamare did in the adjacent facility, the new beam rifle already clutched in the Kiba's left manipulator while the Chilong in the right hand flexed. The next second saw the two flying out into the air, even as the Shadowfax and the Noctoraptor entered the catapults and the mobile suits in the 2nd deck streamed out four at a time. As the Kiba dropped, Kira opened the Augury's thrusters up, bringing the black Gundam into a level flight. From his birds eye view, Kira clearly saw the white Constantines striding over the dunes, any of the glitches or whatever there was in the previous models gone. Then he saw the leading one.

It was pitch-black, from head to foot, with red secondary coloring and golden cameras exactly like the Augury's and Kiba's. It had the same basic structure as the Constantines but it was different in some ways. For one, it had a structure just above the visor similar to the V-fin of the Gundams, except that there was a third arm coming up from the center. Second, the pauldron had three spikes in a triangular formation coming out from where it met the shoulder, each seeming sharp enough to cut air. The shield ended in a point, and had holes just large enough for a gunbarrel in either side. The rifle in its right manipulator had a grip like a minigun, and had a strip of metal going all along the bottom, from the tip of the barrel, extending past the elbow.

Naturally, Kira deduced that it was the leader of this particular group and fired off a shot from the Kamkaze's first barrel. This round was pretty much the same as 21st Century A.D. Armor Piercing Fin Stabilizing Discarding Sabot Kinetic Energy Penetrators. It pretty much looked like a bullet with an arrowhead protruding from its front and the feathered end protruding from its back. Almost immediately after firing, the sabot, the bullet-like part, fell off in three pieces, allowing the main arrow-like projectile, made of depleted uranium and tipped with magnesium, to proceed normally. Usually, when a KP round hits something, it tears right through, leaving nothing in its wake but holed armor and, in this case, molten scrap. This time, however, the black and red Constantine just raised its shield, and instead of the KP penetrating it, crumpling the shield around the entry hole as it pierced the mobile suit, the round flattened against the shield. _Phase Shift Armor_.

Before Kira could do anything else, the black mobile suit waved up at him and....disappeared. _And Mirage Colloid?_Kira wasted a few seconds scanning with the EWACS before he concluded that the strange Constantine had departed. Then he turned his attention on the other, more normal Constantines.

Down below, the Kiba had already started carving into them, Chimamare's omnipresent cackle sounding out, yet again, over an open channel. With the platinum Chilong slicing away, and the beam rifle firing randomly as its chainsaw bayonet revved up, slicing a Constantine completely in half. Needless to say, the OMNI pilots, whose comrades had long been noted for a very low standard of morale, ran to fight the other Gundams. Better to be killed quickly by beam or saber rather than sliced in half at the waist and left to bleed out.

Yzak couldn't help but smile to himself. The upgrades to the Enmity, while not immediately noticeable to anyone inexperienced in the piloting of mobile suits, made it a lot easier for Yzak to deal with the Constantines. For one, the supposedly improved reflexive control systems, which were supposed to make some of the 'twitch' controls, such as firing faster, had been fixed, allowing Yzak to quickly snap off shots, at one point hitting three Constantines in the battery all withing two point three seconds. The Redcoat had also managed to.... 'appropriate' a P-THEL from a Constantine, and started firing off shots. One particularly memorable shot speared five of the OMNI suits in a row, through the cockpit. Apparently, the software updates to the nano-adapters (which Yzak had not used before and had no idea how well they would've worked previously) were operating perfectly, slaving the P-THEL's targeting and firing systems perfectly to the Enmity's.

Waltfeld, about twenty meters to Yzak's left, grinned as one of Aisha's tri-shots ripped a Constantine in half even as the GAHMU's brand-new Phase-Shift claws tore the front of another off. Around them, Waltfeld's GAHMU support started in on the Constantines, beams, bullets, missiles, torpedoes, and all such projectiles flying.

Quickly enough, the majority of the OMNI mobile suits were destroyed, with the remnants putting up a good fight.

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"Well, there's proof of Battle Darwinism." Liene commented, watching the battle on the monitor of the briefing room.

"Battle Darwinism?" Cagalli asked, sitting next to him.

"A sort of joke among Morgenroete about OMNI." Liene explained. "It's a..... 'theory', if such an official term could be applied to it, that, in a military that depends on quantity rather than quality, in any engagement, the weak and unlucky ones will be quickly mowed down, leaving the strong and lucky, or skilled, to fight for their lives against superior odds." At that point, the surviving Constantines surged forward, disabling plenty of the GAHMU's before being finished by the Gundams. "There you go. Unlike their comrades, they actually managed to inconvenience us by disabling the GAHMU's before the others finished them."

"Why did they just disable the GAHMUs?" Mu wondered. "Why not destroy them outright?"

"Oh, the GAHMU pilots managed to move their units so that the shots hit some important components rather than hitting, say, the cockpit or battery."

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Kira scanned the battlefield, looking for any survivors. Most of the Constantines were completely still, pretty much wreckage. Then he noticed a bit of movement amongst one that was mostly intact except for the head. The cockpit opened, and the pilot tumbled out. After getting up and stretching a bit, he saw the Augury and started hopping up and down, waving his arms over his head. Glancing at the others to make sure they weren't looking, Kira raised the Kamikaze and took careful aim. After about a millisecond, where the OMNI pilot realized his plight and turned to run, Kira fired. The KP round, meant for use against heavily armored targets such as, oh, battleships, or maybe military forts, pretty much liquidated the pilot.

"Now that wasn't very......nice, Kira. Although, you did murder my brother and his subordinates in a rather brutal manner...." Kira started, as the smooth voice came from the radio.

"Abaddon?"

"Hm. Nice that you remember me."

"For the record, your brother killed my parents, as well as a significant number of soldiers on _his own side_."

"All in the name of victory."

At that moment, the EWACS detected the Constantine after about thirty seconds of sifting through interference from N-Jammers and Mirage Colloid. Lifting the Kamikaze, Kira fired off one shot from the second barrel, the depleted uranium round streaking through the air. It impacted, the force-sensitive explosive detonating, sending shrapnel flying everywhere. Normally, superheated depleted uranium shrapnel would cause a mobile suit to look like a porcupine, considering the speed at which the explosion launched them. However, against the apparently Phase-Shifted shield of this particular Constantine, it might as well have been rain. As the mobile suit stood up from behind its shield, Kira pushed the Augury down, doing the same thruster-skating move he'd used the day before. This time however, it was much faster, with the Augury slicing in at the Constantine's head after three seconds of 'touchdown'.

The Excalibur slammed against a yellow-white beam blade, stopping before beginning to slowly slice through. Kira withdrew, backing the Augury off about fifty meters. The blade came from the strip of metal on the Constantine's rifle, extending three meters past the end of the barrel and two past the mobile suit's elbow. At the widest point, the blade was two meters, in the middle of the metal strip.

In the Praetor, Abaddon let his grin spread, even as he flourished the blade, bowing the OMNI suit.

Kira responded like wise, saluting Abaddon with the Excalibur.

Then they dueled, the Augury boosting at the Praetor, Excalibur slashing in. The Praetor stepped forward and to the left, spinning around the slash even as its blade stabbed in, elbow point leading. The Augury jumped over the stab, flipping as it landed on its feet with the Phase-Shifted point of the shield stabbing for the cockpit of the Praetor. The Praetor's shield blocked it, then forced it to the Augury's left. The Excalibur hacked towards the Praetor's back, only to be intercepted by the rifle-blade.

"Well, this is an awkward position." Abaddon commented. The Praetor was facing at a right angle to the Augury, with the shield outstretched to block the Gundam's own shield, and the rifle arm was folded behind its back so that the blade could stop the Excalibur. Then the Praetor jerked its head to the side as a lightning streak passed it. The Praetor jerked itself back, facing forward, forcing the Augury to follow, causing the Gundam to turn completely. Then the Praetor just kicked the Augury in the back, sending it smashing into the sand.

Kira got the Gundams hands beneath it and pushed up, seeing the suit that had fired the Ion Beam. The Charcharius.

"Ah, Rau! I was wondering when you'd show up." Abaddon said, sounding pleased, almost.

"Edward?" Rau gasped, the Charcharius actually taking a step back.

"Nice to see that you remember me. Traitor." the Watcher sneered, his mobile suit stepping back. "I'll see you two again. Soon." The Praetor disappeared, Mirage Colloid wiping it from view.

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A/N: Well..... looks like I had a few more tricks than I planned in this story. Anyway, sorry that this came out later than I hoped, but I just got some new games and... you know.

G. Wagers: To answer, I think 'on time' should be about two days after the last chapter, but I've been stalling and/or stalled because of my sister, power outages from trees, faulty internet connections, video game obsessions......life, basically.

Velshard: Yes. Yes it is.


	18. Phase 11: Here There be Dragons

Gundam Seed: Killer's Realm

Phase 11: Here There be Dragons

**Barachiel, Meeting Room**

**January 31, 71 C.E., 10:01 A.M. Local Time, 7:01 P.M. Orb Time**

"What's your connection with Abaddon, Sir?" Athrun asked, sitting in front of Rau. Le Creuset was sitting back in his chair, staring at the ceiling. Or, at least they thought so. His mask hid where his eyes were looking.

"I knew him....and his family, before the war." This generated quizzical looks and general signs of confusion amongst the majority of the onlookers, only the ZAFT team and the Orb Elite keeping calm. "About nine years ago, after an....accident, that orphaned me, the Abaddon family took me in. I lived with them for about two years, befriended many of them.....and then I ran away, killing several in the process."

"Why?"

"They were members of Blue Cosmos, and as the beginning of the war drew closer, they were planning to use me for some kind of experiments." More muttering, some retorts of disbelief.

"Among them was Edward Abaddon's wife."

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**Grigori, Captain's Quarters**

**Same Time**

"So, what are we going to do about them?" David asked, standing in front of Edward. The Watcher's Commander was sitting idly on his bed, looking over some of the latest reports, every so often snorting at some ignorant intelligence weenie's report.

"We're going to follow them until we figure out where they're headed. And then we're going to tell the Admirals and they're gonna plaster it everywhere and attack the place in question."

"Ooh, I just love when you two plot. Who are we killing now?" Both men jumped a little when the girl spoke, before turning to face the doorway. Edward got up and walked toward the new arrival, standing before her with his trademark blank stare. Then he broke out into a wide grin and embraced her.

"Lena! It's nice to see you again, how are you?" Lena rolled her eyes.

"Much better. Having an operation to turn you into a Coordinator-killing machine makes you feel so empowered."

"They didn't do anything...negative, did they?"

"Nah. The other three got adjusted so that they need this drug or something every three hours, but they didn't do that to me. Basically, all good and no bad."

"That's....good." Edward stepped back, looking Lena up and down. "That's new." Lena stepped back and twirled, showing off the body-conforming jumpsuit, causing David to flush and look away.

"Like it? It's the new pilot suit they came up with. Those three guys were wearing them too when we got our Gundams."

"That reminds me, what _is_ your Gundam? They never told me what it was....." Edward asked, brow furrowing.

"Probably because they didn't want you to be jealous. And they probably want to irritate you. The great Vice Admiral Edward Abaddon, forced to use a Constantine while a lowly ensign gets a brand-new, never-before-seen Gundam...." That caused Edward to give Lena a doubtful look.

"The Praetor is hardly a Constantine."

"Oh please, you couldn't even beat a sixteen-year old boy and a repainted Scowler. It's an enhanced Constantine." Edward's eye twitched.

"The Praetor is unfinished. It is a work in progress. When I finish it, it will be a terror on the battlefield."

"And it'll be all dusty and rusted in my wake." David curled up in the corner of the room as the two glared at each other, both pale, black-haired and blue-eyed. Then they broke out into a long laugh, and he sighed in relief, standing back up.

"It's nice that we can talk like this again." Lena said, wiping a tear from her eye. "Instead of video conferencing. By the way, what's this Kira guy look like?" Frowning, Edward ruffled through his documents, pulling out one with a picture of Kira. "My....he's cute." Again, Edward's eye twitched.

"Excuse me? He killed Joseph"

"And we never liked him anyway. Always yelling at you, and he even hit you several times! I don't get why you keep up this vendetta. I mean, I understand your hatred of Le Creuset, seeing as he killed Mom and a lot of other family members, but why Kira? Joseph was an asshole."

"Now Lena, despite our mutual dislike of my older brother, he was family, and you're supposed to stick by family." Edward admonished, although he agreed with Lena.

"Cain killed Abel."

"Religious fiction. And even then, all those guys are nuts."

"Joseph killed Ben." Edward forced himself not to react to that. Ben had been his son, and he'd been killed by the Endymion Cyclops. Which had been activated by Joseph. "So, in a sense, Kira killed Joseph for you."

"We'll discuss this later. For now, let's go see your new Gundam eh? David heaved another sigh of relief as the two walked to the first hanger deck. He never wanted to get caught in the same room with those two when they were having an argument again. Father-daughter spats, even minor ones, became deadly when Abaddons were involved.

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**Kira and Jack's Quarters**

**10:28 A.M. Local, 7:28 P.M. Orb**

"Damn, he's got an even bigger vendetta against them than you do Kira." Jack commented, laying on his bunk. Kira just sat there, on his bed, typing on his laptop. "Whatcha working on?"

"The Augury's targeting systems. I'm trying to make it so that the Kamikaze adjusts voltage and magnetism to ensure that the shell penetrates just enough to where it's embedded in the target, rather than blasting straight through it." Kira responded, typing speeding up.

"Ah. For the Thermesium shells right?"

"Yes."

"Man, Liene really made a monster when he made the Kuro Tenshi."

"Oh, he's not done yet."

"Really? What else is he making?" Kira sighed. Now that he'd said something, Jack wasn't going to let up. He finished the part of the system that he was writing and closed the laptop.

"I'm not really sure, but I think he's taking data from the Gundams and compiling them, designing better versions and incorporating some of the more experimental technologies that he and Morgenroete have been working on. And some that ZAFT and OMNI have been working on." Jack was practically squirming with curiosity. Then Kira dropped the bombshell. "And I think he's working some of the Tetsujin's tech in there." Jack froze. His eyes glazed over and became bloodshot, and drool began dripping from his lips. "Oh shit."

The next second, Chimamare leaped onto Kira's bunk, grabbed the Orb Prince, and started shaking him.

"Tell me everything!" Kira responded with a low kidney shot, forcing Chimamare to recoil, and followed it up with kicking the alter in the forehead. The battle-crazed thing was laid flat on the floor, seemingly unconscious. After a few seconds, Jack groaned and sat up, rubbing his head.

"Did you have to kick so hard?"

"Yes."

"Ugh, again with the monosyllabic answers! Just tell us, exactly what is Liene doing?"

"I don't know. All I know is that he's making new Gundams, and that he's using technology from Project Shuurajou."

"Man, couldn't you have found out more?"

"No."

"Still, Tetsujin tech in our new Gundams! That's awesome. Almost as good as if we actually got to _see_ a Tetsujin."

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**Manufacturing Bay**

**10:57 A.M. Local, 7:57 P.M. Orb**

Liene typed rapidly, palm computer hooked up to the manufacturing bay's, as he worked parts schematics and whole mobile suit blueprints into the program. A very brief, very slight scowl crossed his face before he deleted the last mobile suit.

_I knew it. The Barachiel's facilities cannot build a Tetsujin in time. Ah well, more time for Mu's._ Liene thought as he began working on his self-assigned project, working from the Shadowfax's schematic and on. This new Gundam would have to be fast, and make an impact......

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**Indian Ocean, Barachiel Deck**

**12:34 P.M. Local, 9:35 P.M. Orb**

"Whoa! So this is the ocean?" Nicol exclaimed, leaning over the railing (A/N: Just so you know, the Barachiel's deck is a flat wedge between the 1st Hanger Deck's catapults)

"Eh, it's like any other ocean." Jack said, leaning on the rail. Noticing Kuzzey glancing over the rail at the seawater, the Gundam Pilot grinned and sauntered over to the crewman, leaning next to him. "You want to be careful. There are monsters in these seas!" When Kuzzey gasped and jumped back from the rail, Jack laughed and resumed his lounging.

"While Jack may be referring to sea monsters such as the Kraken, Leviathan, and other such purely mythical beasts, there are indeed enemies in the Indian ocean." Liene said dryly. "Last reports from Orb and ZAFT's Carpentaria base state that OMNI has flooded the Indian Ocean with veritable schools of Megalodons, and Constantines equipped with mass-produced Angelos packs are patrolling the skies from specialized carriers. While ZAFT's new Isurus is helping in pushing against the Megalodons, there are too few Isurus suits and too many Megalodon armors. We should expect both ZAFT and OMNI forces on our way to Orb." Everyone shivered a bit at that. Most of the Gundams were land-based, and while the Barachiel's defenses were formidable, they could be destroyed more easily than a mobile weapon.

Currently, only the Augury and the Shadowfax could be depended on for aerial defense, but for underwater combat, they just had the Kiba.

"Contact! We have a mobile suit flying towards us!" At that announcement, they all scrambled for the hatch.

**Barachiel, 1st Hanger Deck**

Kira hopped into the Augury's cockpit, strapping himself in even as Mu did the same in his Shadowfax. They hadn't even finished the start-up process when they were locked onto the catapults. Kira had barely finished the process when the Augury was launched into the sky.

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A/N: Yes, I'm ending it here, cause I love leaving people with cliffhangers. That, and I think that I've hit you guys with enough surprises. Also, My stomach is trying to digest itself and I can't think.

AtramUnas: FINALLY! Someone got it! I've been waiting for people to check out the OS acronyms ever since I put the ZAMS up! I really can't believe no one picked up on the Megalodon's two Operating Systems.

Velshard: Still waiting (But take your time)

Everyone: Kinda disappointed no one sent a BCPU Gundam design, but now you got Mu's. Seriously, Me and Velly are dominating the market here. I think the only other ones who've gone and contributed was Animefan29 with the ZONGS and Kojiro Kun with the Megalodon concept.

Really, just send me a description and a list of weapons. Seriously. Someone?

Knightmare Gundam of Ni


	19. Omake: Return of the Transformers

Gundam Seed: Killer's Realm

Omake

Return of the Transformers

As humans waged war upon one another on the surface of Earth, North Africa to be specific; their struggle awoke sleeping giants that had rested for over four hundred years, since the battle of Egypt long ago.

During this specific battle, the Barachiel and its compliment of Gundams with their ZAFT allies, mainly GAHMUs, fought against OMNI's Constantines and Megalodons. Plasma beams lashed back and forth, missiles arced over high, and from above, the Augury and its Kuro Tenshi pack fired dozens of magnetically accelerated rounds into the midst of the Constantine horde. One of these, a Kinetic Energy Penetrator with an anti-matter explosive planted in its head, missed its target and shot through the sand and bedrock to a capsule buried far (by human standards) beneath the surface. The accompanying positron detonation and release of gamma radiation messed with the circuitry, releasing the occupants of the capsule prematurely, along with another capsule buried nearby.

From the first capsule, a biomechanical-looking, humanoid machine erupted from the sand, claws grasping out and ripping at the Constantine's torsos as the alien robot roared.

"I am Megatron!!!" The sheer hatred and bloodlust embodied in that harsh, mechanical voice caused several of the OMNI suits to back off, even as other robots forced their way up through the sand. One of them, looking like a triangle with head and limbs, reflexively flinched away from Megatron, before the machine roared again. "STARSCREAM!! Are we still on this misbegotten rock of a planet?"

"It would appear so, my lord Megatron." Starscream replied in a scratchy, wheedling voice, even as the other machines, Decepticons, formed around their principal commanders.

"Where is Prime?! I had him and his Autobots buried near our location!" Almost as though summoned, the red and blue form of Optimus broke through the dunes, followed closely by the faded yellow of Bumblebee. On each side, Decepticons amongst the OMNI forces, and the Autobots from under the Barachiel's unit, Transformers continued to exhume themselves, engaging in combat with one another.

Or, in Megatron's case, with the bystanders. As his infamous fusion cannon fired again and again at the Constantines, he posed Starscream a simple question.

"Why are my optics so distorted?!" Starscream replied simply.

"Lord Megatron, it appears that our capsules were disrupted by weapons fire from these humans." He said, gesturing at the seemingly half-as-tall-as-them mobile suits. "I believe that this also may have scrambled our optical cir-" The aerial Decepticon was interrupted by Megatron's fist smashing into his face.

"You overestimate these fleshlings Starscream." the Decepticon leader stated. As he spoke, his red optics flickered off for a brief second before reactivating. And beheld the black-armored Augury, almost eight meters or twenty-five feet taller than the Cybertronian. As he gazed at the surprisingly daunting weapon the 'fleshlings' had created, Megatron couldn't help but vocalize what he believed was a human expletive for a situation like this: "Fuck."

Optimus, for his part, stood by the silver 'mobile suit' designated "Kiba", watching the confrontation. In his dozens of millennia as a Prime, he had seen many things he would never have expected to witness. One such item he was currently adding to the list was his brothers slack-jawed look as the "Augury" drew its foot back and disdainfully kicked Megatron in the chest, crumpling Cybertronian armor and sending the Decepticon bowling end over end, crashing into one of the Constructicons, Ravage. One of the other Decepticons, a cousin to the one known as Brawl, roared and charged the Augury, guns blazing before Optimus could warn it.

In the Augury, Kira lazily grabbed the charging robot by the chest, ignoring the ineffective bullets, forcing the Augury's manipulator through a small part of its armor as it lifted the machine up to camera level. Then, he drew the Augury's shield back and stabbed forward, piercing the bulky mechanical through the torso just as he released it. The next second saw the Kamikaze fire one of the Thermesium rounds, the plasma shell around the inner layers melting through the Decepticon's chest and spark, traveling through it to plant itself in a Constructicon leading a group of its fellows against the currently immobile Autobots. The explosion ripped the (comparatively) small robot apart, severely damaging those surrounding it.

Optimus barely had time to gape in awe before the Augury's Excalibur was pointed at the bridge of his nose, chainsaw-like beam blade noticeably heating up the alloy.

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A/N: Inspired by the 2009 film, Revenge of the Fallen. And one of Velshards off-hand comments about a TF/GS crossover. If nothing else, it's good for a laugh (either with me or at me)


	20. Phase 12: Crimson Breeze Scarlet Current

Gundam Seed: Killer's Realm

Phase 12: Crimson Breeze, Scarlet Current

**Indian Ocean Airspace**

**12:36 P.M. Local, 9:36 P.M. Orb**

Hank was happy with his position. He piloted a recon-refit Constantine with flight pack and pointed out targets for his ship, the A.F.S Wilburton (after a famous admiral in the reconstruction war), and sat back while cannon fire and swarms of flying Constantines, along with the fleet of Megalodons accompanying his ship, tore apart said target.

What made him decidedly terrified was the black winged form of the Augury soaring in his direction, followed closely by the Shadowfax. Of somewhat less immediate, but no less debilitating panic was the sight of the renegade Barachiel hovering slightly over the sea. Hank poked furiously at his communications, hoping that he could be saved by the carrier that he'd spent half an hour flying from.

Hank wasn't very smart.

Then the comms screen opened, showing the on-duty communications officer.

"What is it, Hank?"

"The Barachiel's here! God damn it! The Augury's on my tail right now! Send everyone!" Then Hank calmed down and looked behind him. The Barachiel was still there, and the Shadowfax, but the mobile armor was heading back and there was no sign of the Augury. Relieved, he turned his Constantine around. And came face-to-faceplate with the Augury. "Holy Sh-!" Hank never got to finish, the Augury's shield piercing straight through the cockpit and pulverizing most of the simple pilot's body, causing gore to cake the point of the shield.

Frowning at the smear on his shield, Kira flew the Augury into the 1st Hanger Deck's catapult, taking a moment to shake the remains of the Constantine onto the deck before walking the Augury into its berth. The mechanics swarmed over the carcass, many recoiling at the blood leaking from the torso cavity before using an industrial ion beam to slice apart armor plates, getting into the inner systems.

A window opened on the Augury's HUD just as Kira was about to open the cockpit.

"Don't get out yet. It seems that Constantine was able to signal its carrier for reinforcements." Liene stated calmly. "We've detected several Constantines on aerial approach, and the sonar is picking up a lot of Megalodons. Jack's already gone out, and Mu's heading to engage the first group of Constantines." Kira just nodded, stepping the Augury back on the catapult. For the second time that day, the catapult launched him into the sky, sending him on an intercept towards the Constantines that Mu was heading for.

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Below the surface of the ocean, the Kiba zipped through the seawater, new hydro-plasma thrusters operating perfectly within Liene's expectations, much to the engineer's satisfaction. At the moment, Chimamare was heading towards the large school of Megalodons charging straight for the Barachiel. Grinning, Chimamare cackled, charging the Kiba forward into the school's midst. The leading Megalodon, colored a deeper blue than the others and with a painting of a rank insignia decorating its' nose, surged forward to meet the Gundam, high-intensity beam saws flaring into existence. The amphibious mobile suit didn't even flinched, diving below the mobile armor before driving its' claws into the center and ripping it in two. Then, the Kiba's maw opened, the Ion Beam Cannon levering into position and firing an especially energetic and dense beam. Much of the weapon's power was deflected by the sea water, the beam being less able to punch through water than air. Still, it had the power to reach the five meters necessary to blast apart the next Megalodon's hull, exposing the pilot to the crushing pressure.

With the faceplate still open, the Kiba seemed to grin as it confronted the remaining Megalodons, who, at the moment, were still there just because they thought they could overwhelm the Gundam. Chimamare grinned. Then, he went nuts. Were he a shark, the effect would be called a 'feeding frenzy.' A group of five Megalodons saw this, and tried to turn around. Tried. Two were impaled by the newish Maser Vibration Spikes from the Chilong gauntlets, neatly skewered through the cockpit. Coaxing an extra bit of power into the thrusters, the Kiba zipped into one of the now-trailing armors, the Phase-Shifted sensor spines on the Gundam's head slicing through the laminated armor.

The last two escaped from the Kiba's claws with mild scars along their ramjets, only to crash into the rest of the Megalodons, who were heading _towards_ the Kiba. Each of the retreating mobile armors crashed into one of their fellows, their armor crumpling and causing explosive decompressions. The rest of the Megalodons, doubtless consisting of some of the more nigh-religious fanatics, rushed towards the Kiba, causing the alter piloting it to cackle in glee as the claws rendered one of the armors into metallic confetti.

Within minutes, much of the approaching school of mobile armors was turned into the metal equivalent of fish fricassee, first by 'fishing' with the MSV, followed by a few slices with the Chilongs, and finishing with a short blast from the Ion Beam Cannon. In the Kiba, Chimamare applauded himself, calling

"Encore! Encore.....No, seriously, I want more."

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In the sky, Mu dodged beams and out-maneuvered missiles, flying circles around the Constantines, which, true to their name, were constantly in his face. Even accounting for modifications to support mobile suits, Mu doubted a single carrier could hold so many mobile suits. Apparently, the carrier had called for back-up. Even as he tailed one Constantine, Mu himself was being chased by no less than three of the mass-production units. The Hawk jinked just in time to avoid a rifle round, then fired off a micro-missile from the launchers on his rear dorsal hardpoints before peeling off. Both missiles performed admirably, punching into their target and detonating inside.

Still, that didn't help Mu's situation one bit, seeing as when he latched onto another target, five more Constantines joined the three still chasing him. Groaning, Mu ascended after the Constantine before him, the mobile suit apparently thinking to try and flip over once higher than the Shadowfax and sandwich the armor between it and Mu's pursuers. La Flaga had, however, forgotten yet another of the main advantages mobile suits had over the majority of mobile armors and the fighter jets that had preceded them.

Limbs.

Using the linear rifle's guncam, the harried Constantine fired a burst over its shoulder, the rounds skimming along the Shadowfax's nose before slamming into the forward left dorsal weapon, a beam gun. Swearing a streak, Mu swerved to avoid any more surprises like that, wishing for a mobile suit of his own.

In a sense, he got his wish, with Kira in the Augury slicing past the OMNI suits behind the Shadowfax, leaving short-lived halves of them in his wake. As the Gundam flew along, it locked onto another group of suits, unleashing fire from the beam carbine on its' right forearm.

Normally, a carbine would be somewhat decreased in power compared to a rifle, being shorter in length and thus having less muzzle velocity. Beam weapons, however, consisting mainly of magnetic coils to concentrate and accelerate a large amount of plasma, require longer barrels merely to increase coil size and thus increase beam cohesion at longer ranges. However, given time to charge, smaller coils could sufficiently concentrate a beam for power similar to that of larger coils. Thus, by limiting the carbine's fire to single-shot rate, and waiting approximately 0.23 seconds to allow charge to build, Kira was able to use the beam carbine just like the Augury's rifle.

Many of the beams found their marks, a few missing to strike a different Constantine. Appropriately, they fell from the sky like stricken pigeons, either exploding in mid-air from battery overload and ammunition reactions, or falling into the ocean like large rocks. Like hornets, the survivors grew apparently far more agitated, flying around in increasingly erratic movements. Then, an onslaught of linear rifle fire came at the Augury, forcing the Gundam to dodge this way and that, trying to avoid depleting its' energy reserves any more than necessary.

Then, the Kamikaze was raised, and a single shot fired. Rather than any of the somewhat advanced and complicated rounds usually used, this was a simple depleted uranium projectile with a core of high-grade Composition 15 plastic explosive. Also, the computerized fuse had been set to three milliseconds after impact, rather than the usual third of a millisecond. The result was that instead of exploding within the first enemy it penetrated, the round detonated near the center of the enemy formation, savaging one particularly unlucky OMNI unit and scattering the rest with the explosion. Exploiting this, the Augury swooped in, slicing, hacking and stabbing at the disoriented Constantines, slaughtering many of them. At this point, approximately fifteen of the mobile suits were left, when the Augury sheathed its sword and grabbed the closest one. With a brutal hack of its shield, the Gundam removed its' Angelos pack, tossing it into the ocean before moving on to the next one.

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Deep in the 'briny blue', as many 18th century pirates would refer to it, Chimamare was contemplating the strange targets floating down from above, as though sent by some almighty deity merely to provide a source of entertainment to the now-bored, bloodthirsty alter. Before him, one of the Constantines struggled to reach the surface, muted flashes and clouds of bubbles signaling his attempt to activate his thrusters. Unfortunately for this poor, foolish Blue Cosmos pilot, his Constantine's thrusters, not made for the corrosive effects of seawater, had been fried.

"Well, that's just what you get for OMNI engineering." Chimamare said out loud. And, again, as always, on a channel where everyone heard. The mobile suits froze, before their heads turned to see the silvery, somewhat reptilian Kiba waving at them. As they now scrambled to get away, Chimamare imagined their pilots' screams of terror, and perhaps cries of 'Mommy'. Chuckling lightly, Jack's murderous personality moved the Kiba towards the Constantines, delighting in their increasingly frantic motions.

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**Grigori, 25 Kilometers East, Altitude 200m**

Abaddon pinched the bridge of his nose, sighing as the screens in the briefing room showed the sheer and complete annihilation of the majority of the 5th Indian Task Group's mobile weaponry.

"Sheesh, it's like sending swarms of flies at a spider." Sariel commented, winching as the Augury tore apart another Constantine in a particularly brutal manner.

"For once, I'd have to agree with you." Lena said, studying the black Gundam carefully. "Hmmm.....shouldn't be a problem for the Samyaza."

"Don't underestimate him Lena. Yamato is quite the pilot. These Constantines probably aren't giving him anything to worry about. And despite its look the Augury is a rather robust unit, and fast as well." Abaddon warned, pointing even as the Gundam in question sawed a Constantine in half through the crotch.

"Feh, we'll see how 'robust' it is when it meets the Samyaza's HALC." Of to the side of the two, Sariel shivered, for what might have been the millionth time since he first met the two. He didn't envy Yamato when Lena confronted him. Actually, he didn't envy Lena either.

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A/N: Sorry for the short chapter, but, things happened.....horrible things. Did you guys know MP3s can carry viruses? Well, I didn't. Wiped my hard drives clean.

Velshard: Thank you very much.

Nxkris: I know, so would I. But, unfortunately, the Greeks forgot to mention how flighty muses are.

G. Wagers: You haven't even seen the 2007 movie or the Revenge of the Fallen? For shame. And no, I can't say I'm surprised. Dissapointed, cause I thought you'd get a laugh at the height differences between the Transformers and the Gundams.

(For those of you wondering, Megatron is 10.3 Meters, Prime 9.8 Meters, and the Augury is 18.2 Meters)

Aunandaun: Thank you. I'll try, but since Lacus is gone, and the slut (Flay) is gone with her, the only pair I really have to work with is Athrun and Cagalli. As for the filler, I suppose I could work something in. Well, the Barachiel moves faster than the Archangel.

Alright, so, working on next phase, hoping to get to the part where Velshard's very well designed (complete with profiles that can cause cerebral hemorrhaging) mobile suits will appear.

Warning: Do NOT let your little sister's MP3 player anywhere near your computer's USB port without assuring that it is virus-free. Blue screens are not pretty. Also, Megatron's Fusion Cannon rules (aim, fire, laugh as Bumblebee dies (yes, I got the Revenge of the Fallen game))

Knightmare Gundam of Ni


	21. Phase 13 I: Punishment

Gundam Seed: Killer's Realm

Phase 13 I: Punishment

**Indian Ocean, Barachiel, Corridors**

**February 1, 71 C.E., 7:57 P.M. Local, 4:57 A.M. Orb**

"Glenn damn you Jack!" Yzak screeched, looking like a manslaughter victim, seeing as he was covered in red paint from head to toe. About a meter in front, cackling like Chimamare, Jack was sprinting fast enough for the Olympics. It was an old prank. Put powdered paint in the showerhead, and then sit back and wait till the victim turns the shower on. Then laugh when he/she runs out in a towel, murder in his/her eyes. Actually, most people waited until they were alone to start laughing, but Jack was never known for common sense out of combat.

So, Jack was running through the Barachiel's corridors, followed closely by Yzak, whose towel was flapping everywhere as the ZAFT red ran after his tormentor. Seeing as there wasn't a combat alert forcing everyone to stations and/or safety, there were plenty of people he flashed. Guys looked horrified, while girls blushed and giggled a bit. Yzak didn't seem to notice, causing Jack to, of course, cackle more.

The two dashed past Liene, who stopped for a second, stunned, before shaking off his disgust and moving on. The next unwitting victim was Dearka, who, upon flashing, squealed in horror and shielded his eyes. Even this didn't stop Yzak from continuing to chase Jack, until he ran into the one obstacle he could not pass.

The door of the quarters shared by Kira and Jack, with a biometric-upgraded triple-code electronic lock and reinforced with a two-centimeter plate of titanium plating. At first, Yzak stabbed at the lock, trying to guess the codes. But, every time he jabbed at the device, an excruciating jolt of high-voltage (yet nonfatal) electricity was delivered into his system by the supremely conductive keypad. After about fifty such shocks, he relented, and sat outside the door, waiting.

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**9:46 P.M. Local, 6:46 A.M. Orb**

Yzak found it hard to stay conscious during his self-imposed guard, actually falling asleep for a minute, muttering various threats and promises of general bodily and psychological harm.

"Shit Yzak, who did this to you?" With a start, Yzak woke up, seeing Kira, dressed in casual clothes (bland-looking black T-shirt and jeans) standing over him, a slight look of concern and maybe a bacterium's worth of worry. Yzak stood up, causing the Orb Prince to back off slightly.

"Who did this to me? WHO DID THIS TO ME??!!! JACK DID THIS TO ME YOU IDIOT!" Kira stood there, lips twitching, before he asked.

"Powdered paint in the showerhead?"

"Yep."

"Ultra-glued towel?"

"Uh-huh."

"Ambush using a nail clipper, a squeaky toy, and several kitchen knives?"

"Ye- what? No!" Kira stood there for a moment, mulling over whether to let Yzak in or not. The he nodded to himself and knocked on the door.

"Jack? Yzak's gone you know."

"Fuck you Kira! I see him right there, thanks to that micro-camera system I installed that allows me to see everything happening in these ten meters of hallway. Incidentally, Cagalli mouth-raped Athrun about a day ago." Kira stood stock-still for a moment, before filing that interesting tidbit away for later.....analysis.

"Jack, the only reason I haven't already let Yzak into the room is because you didn't do the squeaky toy ambush. If you persist in resisting your rightful punishment, I will be forced to open this door." Both Coordinators heard some laughter then, with a bit of an insane tinge that told Kira Chimamare had a slight hand in this event.

"Good luck! I changed the passwords so that even you can't get in unless I let you Kira!"

"Yzak, I keep a supply of extra knives in a box under my bunk."

"Thanks Kira." Without further ado, Kira rapidly typed in three passcodes, opening the door to reveal a stunned Jack sitting with his personal computer on his lap.

"How!?" The prankster asked.

"For the five years that I've known you Jack, you've used the same combination of six passcodes in all your locked possessions: Death, Pestilence, War, Droid, Terminator, and Kitty." The last caused a strange look from Yzak.

"Kitty?" Kira shrugged.

"Don't ask me, it's his passcode." Yzak shrugged too, before marching into the room and closing the door behind him.

As the screams started, Kira walked down the hallway, heading towards the cafeteria. He had to talk to Athrun now. If, as Jack said, Cagalli was making the advance, then there'd be no worries. However, if Athrun had started it....well, there would still be no worries, but Kira was still concerned. Older brother instincts and all that.

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A/N: I was really, really tempted to just ignore you guys, and move on with the action. But, I decided to just do the whole "interpersonal relations" thing. Not that Yzak and Jack needed any clarification in their relationship, but I think it's still funny. Although I've been told that I have a strange sense of humor.

I've pretty much split Phase 13 into three parts, to try and drag it out a bit. In this part, I was actually tempted to title it 'Pun'ishment, but there were no puns.

On the romances and stuff, I've already used the one 'get-together' event/thing/whatever that I'm good at writing, that being the 'love-at-first-sight' shtick, for Kira/Lacus. So, I'm pretty much just dropping the Athrun/Cagalli into the spotlight out of nowhere.

G. Wagers: Yeah yeah, I'm working on it.

Nxkris: And we haven't even gotten to the third one of the little trinity of insanity yet.

Velshard: I liked Hank too. I've already got his brothers Frank, Shank, Bank, and Dick planned out for their appearances. And they're all....(pauses to look up word) Quintuplets. They may survive. Most likely not.

On a separate note, is it done yet? I've been itching to hear more since before my computer went blue.

Knightmare Gundam of Ni


	22. Phase 13 II: Naughtiness

Gundam Seed

Phase 13 II: Apparent Naughtiness

**Indian Ocean, Barachiel, Cafeteria**

**10:48 P.M. Local, 7:48 A.M. Orb**

Jack knelt by the door, listening for any signs of movement, hoping that Kira would finally step out of the Cafeteria. Meanwhile, his two alter-egos argued in his head about the ethics of their current activity.

"_**Kira deserves it for letting Yzak torture us!" **_Chimamare growled, causing the entire left side of Jack's head to ache.

"_But if we hadn't pranked Yzak in the first place, then he wouldn't have had to, since Yzak wouldn't have been after us!"_ Jack's less intrusive, and considerably kinder personality, Hajikidasu, or 'Haji', said, causing a slight pain in the right side of his head. At that point, Jack had enough and tried his usual 'shut-them-up' trick, which originated from his curiosity at the age of twelve.

_I hate to ask again, but since I've yet to receive a conclusive answer, why did you guys name yourselves in Japanese?_

Their advice was nice from time-to-time, but most of the time they drove him crazy. Schizophrenia had its down-sides.

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Kira patiently waited in the cafeteria, free hand drumming on the tabletop while his other held a mug of green tea. Occasionally he took a sip, or used his free hand to jab out a few lines of code for the new mobile weapon OS he was writing.

Usually around this time, if he wasn't asleep, Athrun came into the cafeteria and had a cup of decaffeinated coffee, black, and just hung around with the other late-nighters. Most of the time, said group included Mu, and more often than not the mechanics, whom most of the pilots swore were insomniacs. After another five minutes of waiting, Mu came up.

"So, Kira, what are you doing up at this time? Usually you've locked yourself in your room with that laptop." Mu said, sitting down next to Kira.

"I'm waiting for Athrun. Gotta catch up and all." Kira said, sounding.....bored. At that moment, there was a loud shout that came from the corridor, albeit very muffled.

"GLENN DAMN IT CAGALLI, JUST SHOVE IT IN!" For a moment everyone, the cooks, the mechanics, Mu, Kira and even Jack just stood there, jaws agape. Well, Kira actually just had a wide-eyed look of astonishment. After the initial shock, Kira set his mug on the table, and dashed for the door, followed closely by Mu, who was then tailed by Jack.

" I DON'T KNOW WHERE IT GOES ATHRUN! HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO SHOVE IT IN IF I DON'T KNOW WHERE IT GOES?"

"I'D THINK IT'S RATHER OBVIOUS!"

In Jack's head, the alter-egos started talking again, jabbering over Jack's thoughts.

"_**Hah! If all goes well, we'll have some blackmail material soon!"**_ Chimamare shouted, glee apparent as Jack took out his pen-like digital camera.

"_If we live! Even if we manage to get a picture, what makes you think Cagalli, Kira, Athrun or anyone else will let us keep it? Or, for that matter, let us keep our organs!"_ Haji said, just knowing that this would turn out like all of Chimamare and Jack's other ventures.

"_**Details, Details, we'll figure it out after we get the picture!"**_

At this point, Kira was almost at the hall where the doors to his and Athrun's rooms the corner, he skidded to a halt at Athrun's door and rapidly punched in the master passcode, the door sliding open to reveal Athrun and Cagalli.....

...Holding a large, round mechanical object and what looked like a motherboard, respectively.

"Oh! Kira......yo." Athrun said, laughing nervously.

".....Yo? Who says yo these days?" Kira, for once in his life, was seriously confused.

"Apparently, Mr. Mechanic here." Cagalli said dryly, slotting the motherboard into the object.

"Oh, so _now_ you know where it goes." Athrun seethed crossly, glaring at the Princess of Orb.

"Well, you only just pointed it out, what, four seconds ago?"

"Whoa! Hold up! What is going on here?" Jack interrupted, waving his pen-camera around.

"Well, me and Cagalli were just making a robot.....wait, how is this any of your concern Jack?" Athrun growled, glaring threateningly at Jack.

"Erm.....it isn't?"

"Very good. Leave."

"Yes sir." Jack marched off comically, swaying arms and everything.

Kira and Mu stared at Jack before turning their attention back to the pair, both of whom were picking up various components scattered on the floor around them and piecing them into the machine.

"So, making a robot for Cagalli, Athrun?" Kira said, a strange gleam in his eye.

"Well, yeah, she is after all my girlfriend." Athrun said, not seeing the shushing motions or pleading expression of Cagalli. Then he realized what he just said to whom. "Shit."

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"Sir! We've just detected the Barachiel!"

"Oh? You're sure?"

"Yes Sir!"

"Good. I'll finally be able to get Le Creuset back after so long."

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A/N: None of you fell for that old trick did you? Cause seriously, I've seen it used so many times I can't remember where I first saw it.  
How many of you fell for it?

Hajikidasu mean calculate (or calculator, I can't remember) according to an english-to-japanese romaji translator I found online.  
From now on, Chimamares thought/speech is bold and italic, Haji's is italic, and Jack's thoughts are italic without quotes.

And Chimamare doesn't have a nickname cause he think's 'Chim' is too close to chimp. Which it is.

Velshard: Alright, where's the surprise?

Infinite Freedom: You'll have to wait to find out.

Nxkris: Jack's strange, not the least cause he has not one, but two other personalities.

G. Wagers: And what exactly confuses you? Wait, you're not complaining? Cool!

Knightmare Gundam of Ni


	23. Phase 13 III: Just Plain Wrong

Gundam Seed: Killer's Realm

Phase 13 III: Just Plain Wrong

**Indian Ocean, Barachiel, Athrun's Room**

**11:03 P.M. Local, 8:03 A.M. Orb**

"Shit." Athrun said fearfully. Kira was an old friend, sure, but there had been some _big_ changes since then.....for one thing, Kira had a very long, very sharp knife and knew how to use it. Out of the corner of his eye, Athrun could see Cagalli wincing, and almost reflexively drawing herself back from him. _Huh?_ Then she looked back at Kira, back to him, and then sighed in relief.

Athrun reluctantly glanced over at Kira, and saw his best friend shaking his head with....was that a half-smile?

"What? You're not going to kill him like everyone else?" Cagalli snorted, looking at Kira suspiciously.

"Well Cagalli, unlike your previous flings, Athrun is...for lack of a better word, honorable, and probably didn't think of the political implications, the wealth, the power, so on and so forth. Plus, I know Athrun very well, so I think I can trust him with you." Kira replied, still half-grinning.

"Previous flings?" Mu, standing behind Kira, wondered. Jack snickered and started whispering into his ear.

"The first one, about four years ago, turned out to be some kind of pervert, and made some 'moves' on Cagalli if you get my meaning. After the first date, if you could call it that, she kicked him in the balls."

"Ouch." Mu said.

"And then, the next day, he was checked into the hospital for several broken bones and castration." Mu's expression made it seem like he was going to be sick.

"The next guy, about two years later, seemed a lot better. Suave, good-looking, rich.....or, at least, he used to be. Turned out that he was trying to get Cagalli for her money. So he turned up later missing an arm and a leg. The next guy though, he took the cake. Only about a month after the last one, and he was pulling the moves on Cagalli. Then she disappeared. The whole country was frantic, looking for her. Then Kira showed up, with her, both pretty normal. That guy was never found. So you see why me and Cagalli are surprised that Kira's not threatening Athrun with the balisong right now."

Mu nodded.

"Eh, I'm fine with it so long as you two don't start the PDA." Kira said, shrugging.

"Yeah, and he wants you to hook him up with Lacus." Jack said, grinning madly. Then the grin turned upside-down as he realized what he just said. At that point, everyone else got as far away as they could from Kira and Jack, Mu moving down the hall and Cagalli and Athrun taking shelter under the bunks.

Kira held up one hand, five fingers. Jack ran out the door and down the hall, pushing past Mu in his race for survival. For every second that passed, one of the fingers on Kira's hand clenched into a fist, until, after exactly 5.17 seconds, Kira and his fist sprinted down the hall after Jack. The remaining three listened really hard, and heard a very high-pitched shriek and the sound of high-velocity fist impacting on flesh. A second later, Kira walked back into the room, wiping blood off his fist with a napkin from the cafeteria.

"All hands, report to stations. Unidentified contact detected by sonar." A computerized femenine voice announced.

"Who was that?" Athrun asked, crawling out from under his bunk.

"That was the auto-report computer. It's a system me and Liene designed to organize and relay information." Kira said, tossing the blood-stained napkin into Athrun's trash bin.

"It's a glorified secretary." Jack groaned, crawling on the floor. Kira sighed. Then he turned around, and Jack screamed in his attempt to crawl away.

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Rau was already in the Charcharius, waiting. _I don't think it's OMNI....despite their surprisingly able use of the Megalodon armor, OMNI hasn't deployed any large submarines in areas outside of the immediate areas of their naval bases._

"Commander Le Creuset, please report with your team to the bridge."

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Arriving at the bridge, Rau, Yzak, Dearka, and Nicol saw Kira, Cagalli, Liene and Athrun gathered in front of the comms screen.

"Well, well. Mark Baryx. I didn't expect to find you outside of the Academy." Rau said, stepping forward. The man on the screen seemed to be about twenty-five, wearing some kind of head-cover resembling a rag wrapped around the upper part of his head, above the eyebrows, and was wearing some kind of metallic body armor that covered him neck-to-toe.

"Rau Le Creuset. I still owe you for that little show back when I was training you and all those other hotshots back in 57." Baryx replied, sounding gruff. Everyone present looked quizzically at Rau.

"It was just after I escaped from the Abaddons. I joined the nascent ZAFT, and was assigned to Commander Baryx's training unit. During an exercise, I accidentally nicked Baryx's ZAMS with a burst from my rifle......this during a battle against several Moebius armors." Rau said, not seeming at all apologetic, just matter-of-fact.

"Saving me from a sneaky bastard who'd managed to get behind me." Baryx said, amused. "Well, anyway, I'm here to return the favor. You're being followed."

"Followed! By who?" Ramius barked, leaning forward.

"By us." The connection to Baryx's submarine was cut, and instead the crew saw a black-haired, blue-eyed girl, dressed in a tight-fitting jumpsuit and what looked like combat boots. Behind her was standing Edward Abaddon, and behind him, off to the right, was David Sariel.

_Huh. She looks familiar._ Liene thought, frowning as he studied the girl.

"Who are you!?" Ramius demanded, fingers gripping the arms of her chair.

"I, am Lena Abaddon. I have been tasked by the Admirals to-"

"Hi." Everyone swiveled to stare at Jack, who had an expression none had ever seen on him before. Most just chalked it up to bloodlust.

"What?" Lena asked, apparently annoyed at being interrupted, folding her arms over her (ample) chest and adopting an irritated expression.

"Oh, I just wanted to ask what your radio frequency was."

"Why in the world would you ever ask that?"

"Well, I know a few good restaurants, and I figured if either of us ever had an off day-" Edward Abaddon and Kira were the first ones to realize what was happening, and did what no one ever expected to happen.

They fell on the floor and laughed.

"HAAAHAHAHAAHAAHAHAHHAA" On and on. Lena was frozen, blush creeping up her cheeks while Sariel stood behind Abaddon, who was rolling on the floor, and tried not to laugh. People had died for less. On the Barachiel's bridge, Kira was clutching his sides, guffawing.

Furious, Lena snarled, and said: "You have one hour. Be ready." and cut the connection.

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A/N: Damn, that was unexpected. And I was the one writing it. I don't blame either of them for laughing though.

Infinite Freedom: Why do you guys think everything that would tick a normal person off would tick Kira off? Even in this darker form, Kira's kinder than most. Unless you're OMNI. Or you've threatened friends and family with bodily or mental harm. Then you're screwed.

Aunandaun: I thought that was why they had reviews.

G. Wagers: Well, it involved the enemy, just probably not in the way you expected.

Nxkris: thank you.

Velshard: …..waiting. And yes, I'm putting what we discussed into the plot.

Alright, enough with the 'filler', I need explosions, death, and general rampant destruction, K'GON!!!

("Yeah?")

Get me the Hellsing anime, God of War, and Phase 50 of Gundam Seed!

("Shit, you're watching Hellsing? Chimamare's gonna have some fun next phase....")

Knightmare Gundam of Ni

And before you ask, no, Mark Baryx is not from some other universe where guys walk around in heavy combat armor wearing do-rags. *glances about shiftily*


	24. Phase 14: Samyaza Unveiled

Gundam Seed: Killer's Realm

Phase 14: Samyaza Unveiled

**Indian Ocean, Grigori, 1st Hanger Deck**

**February 2nd, 71 C.E., 12:45 A.M. Local, 9:45 A.M. Orb**

"Come on Lena, let us go!" growled a blond teen, fists clenched at his side as a green-haired teen with headphones and a redhead playing a handheld game flanked him.

"Like hell Orga! We don't want to kill them yet, just get them to move faster wherever they're going." Lena hissed at the BCPU, her own hands itching to punch the Extended.

"Ha! You just don't want us to hurt your new boyfriend!" The redhead, Clotho Buer, laughed, pausing his game. This time, Lena hit him, punching him in the upper right of his head and sending him flying back into a Constantine's foot.

"Anyone else wanna make a comment?!" She snarled. Neither Orga Sabnak nor Shani Andras said anything. "Good!" Muttering under her breath, Lena climbed up to the catwalk, throwing glares at the trio still below. On the catwalk, she strode in front of a gray colored Gundam with black highlights. Unlike most Gundams, which seemed fairly blocky, this one was similar in physical build to the Kiba, with curved surfaces prevailing, although it seemed somewhat thinner. The shoulder plates flared up and out, ending in spheres that looked vaguely similar to some kind of camera. The feet were built similar to high heels, and the fronts of the lower legs had vents about a third as wide as the legs. The elbows jutted out from the arm like a spike, the forearms had small gun barrels protruding from them, and each of the fingers ended in a long claw. The head was, again, similar to the Kiba's, except it had a normal 'grill' faceplate, and instead of the sensor spines, it had a single bar that extended from the back of the head before splitting into two, with the two separate pieces flowing back towards the front of the head to rejoin, forming a 'halo'.

"Well then, let's see how the Augury holds up to this." Lena said to herself, jumping into the cockpit. Sitting in the command chair, she put her helmet on, attaching it to the neck of her pilot jumpsuit, making absolutely sure it was airtight. Done with that, she started flipping switches, running checkup programs and anti-viral software. With that finished, she reached behind her, grabbing a spike that was in turn attached to a robot arm protruding from the ceiling. For a moment, Lena just sat there, shuddering. Then, she stabbed the spike into a slot on the helmet, almost exactly on the spot where her neck became the spine. Arching her back, Lena clenched her teeth, forcing herself not to scream. After about five seconds, she relaxed, and hit one last switch.

Outside, the Gundam's eyes flared, a brief red flash. The mechanics scrambled, along with the other BCPUs, all heading for the halls. At the back of the hanger, in the control room on the 'ceiling', Edward and David watched as Lena stepped her Gundam onto the catapult.

"Doesn't it bring a tear to your eye David? My girl, on her first combat sortie..." Edward said, sounding wistful.

"More like a chill to my spine. She was bad enough in hand-to-hand combat training. Now she's got her own Gundam." David shuddered. "Actually, I'm wondering why you're letting her go."

"She can handle herself."

"No, I mean, aren't you afraid she'll elope with that Jack guy?" For about ten seconds, both of them were quiet.

Then they started laughing, Edward clutching the console in front of him while David just collapsed on the floor.

"HEY! I heard that!" That stopped David cold, although Edward continued to chuckle.

"Well dear, I'm afraid I must tell you to fly at least five hundred meters above the water, so that Jack can't just leap out of the sea and embrace you." That started David chuckling again. A muted squeal from the radio announced Lena's turning hers off.

In her Gundam, the BCPU muttered to herself as the Angelos Constantines launched, all fourteen of them. These were piloted by fellow Watchers, each ruthlessly trained in the use of mobile weapons, having worked together in simulators for the past year.

Lena smirked. It only fit that the Watchers followed their leader. As the last of the Constantines launched, Lena transformed her Gundam. The shoulders collapsed backwards, folding in on the back as the arms pivoted and folded forward, so that the claws pointed straight up, and a part of the torso flipped forward, covering the head and becoming an aircraft nose. The legs revolved 180 degrees before bending so that the knees touched the elbow spikes of the arms. The 'high heel' feet closed, looking more like jet engines. The plasma thrusters flared, accelerating the Gundam-turned-fighter until it broke the sound barrier, where the jets ensconced in the feet activated, propelling the Gundam upwards and forwards.

In his Constantine, Tom sighed. It was almost like God hated him. First, he got conscripted. Then he got assigned to the Watchers. And now he was working with the boss' daughter. Recipe for disaster. Still, orders were orders, and one perk of this new position was that he was the one giving orders. Most of the time.

"Alright guys. You got your wills written?" A chorus of yes answered him. "Prayed to the deity of your choice?" This time it was a smattering of prayers, religious quotes, and _Allahu akbar_s. "Good. It was nice knowing you then." As the Constantines followed Lena, some of the pilots started sobbing.

About a kilometer ahead of them, slowing down, the Samyaza burned towards the Barachiel's position.

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**Barachiel, 2nd Hanger Deck**

"Finally! Now I won't have to sit around while you idiots take all the fun!" Yzak said, standing in front of a Guul subflight flier. The Guul was mostly used by ZAMS, ZONGS, and SCAUs used in atmospheric combat. But, Liene was modifying these ones they got from the Ulysses, Baryx's submarine carrier.

"Don't get excited Yzak. I've only finished one, and that's for Le Creuset." Leaving Yzak muttering, Liene walked around one of the Guuls, opening access panels and rearranging a few wires, occasionally hooking up his computer up to the machine.

Up on the catwalks, Kira, Athrun and Cagalli watched Jack, who was doing some maintenance on the Kiba. Or so it seemed. In reality, Jack was just listening to several different radio frequencies to find the one Lena used.

"Think he'll find it?" Cagalli asked, leaning on the rail next to Athrun. Kira glanced back at the schizophrenic, who was 'subtly' cursing as he flipped through more frequencies.

"Maybe." Kira said.

"Contacts detected at twenty kilometers, three hundred fifty meters above sea level. Pilots, to your units." The computer called, intercom blaring.

"Well, there's the call. Get move on Kira." Cagalli ordered, poking her brother in the shoulder. Rubbing said shoulder, Kira sprinted for the Augury, leaping into the cockpit and placing his helmet on his head, quickly running through the start-up process.

In the Kiba's cockpit, Jack was having a minor crisis.

_Shit! She's gonna be out there......I can't fight her!_ A sharp pain in the left side of his head announced Chimamare's presence as the combat-made alter laughed.

"_**Oh don't worry about that! I'll be fighting her!"**_ Jack couldn't say anything back, as Chimamare took over, forcing his other into unconsciousness. Cackling, Chimamare started the Kiba up, sliding the right manipulator into a Chilong while the other gripped the Beam Rifle.

"_**Damn I love this thing**_."

"_That wasn't very nice you know."_

"_**Shut it Haji! I can't very well let the idiot get us killed!"**_

"_I don't argue that point. Jack is acting very illogically."_

"**_I have to agree with the idiot though, she is hot. SMOKING hot!"_**

"_Ugh."_

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Above the clouds, Lena grinned as the Samyaza's sensors detected the launch of both the Augury and the Kiba. Now she'd get back at that idiot for embarrassing her... and she'd take down that pain-in-the-ass Kira Yamato. A second later, the Shadowfax launched, along with.....

_Le Creuset!_ Baring her teeth, Lena snarled at the sensor image of the Charcharius SCAU, standing on a Guul. Practically growling at the mobile suit, Lena turned her attention back to the Augury, which was heading straight for the Constantines along with the others.....as far as she could tell. The Kiba was pretty much undetectable by the current sensor set, and the Shadowfax was one stealthy little bastard.

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Raising the Kamikaze, the Augury fired off one shot, another of the C15 projectiles like the one used in the last battle. However, it seemed that these Constantines were more aware than their brethren, and actually managed to dodge the shell. Well, almost. One Constantine in the back of the group was slower than the rest, and got its shield arm ripped off.

Before Kira could do anything else, an alert popped up on his HUD. Without further ado, Kira fired the thrusters, rocketing the Gundam up. Before the Augury hit the five hundred meter mark, a gray and black blur slammed into it, spiraling downward. Through the Augury's cameras, Kira caught glimpses of a haloed Gundam face, with V-fins shorter than normal. Then the radio squealed.

"Hello Kira." Lena said. "It was nice to meet you. Goodbye!" Outside, the Gundam, Samyaza, pulled an enormous sword from a sheath integrated into its back and sliced at the Augury, red-white plasma beam leading. Just barely, the Excalibur intercepted it, knocking the blade away while Kira disentangled the Augury from the Samyaza. A kick to the torso, and a swipe of the shield did admirably, knocking the Watcher Gundam away.

"Aren't you that girl that Jack has a crush on?" Kira said weakly, dodging the Augury down. Good thing he did to, as the Samyaza sliced through the air where the black Gundam had just been.

"GAH! I hate that idiot! Asking me out when I'm threatening the lot of you!" Lena growled, the Samyaza's left manipulator pulling its Beam Rifle from the hip holster.

"He's done worse." Kira commented, throwing the Augury to the side as it's Beam Carbine fired. A retaliating burst of beams from the Samyaza singed the Augury's wing, although it was mostly cosmetic damage. The Samyaza darted in, the Anti-Ship Sword hacking for the Augury's cockpit. The Augury's shield swept in, deflecting the deadly blade before the Excalibur stabbed at the gray Gundam.

"You really need to work on your speed." Lena commented, the Samyaza easily swerving around the blade as the left arm swung the Beam Rifle to aim right at the Augury's head.

Or, at least, where its head was.

Instead of firing a beam through the winged Gundam's head, the Samyaza was kicked – hard – in the back as the Excalibur sliced the left shoulder flange off. Even as Lena righted the Watcher suit, the Augury's Kamikaze fired off a KP round. The arrow-like projectile impacted directly on the cockpit, flattening itself on the Phase-Shifted alloy and causing a tremendous shudder in the Samyaza's frame.

"And you shouldn't take your eyes off your opponent." Kira retorted. "Hmm. That KP round should have drained all of your power. Even with extra batteries, the new motive systems that Gundam uses should have accounted for that."

"New Phase Shift, asshole!" Lena bit off, raising the Samyaza's rifle. The secondary barrel mounted under the main one spit out a burst of at least five dozen rounds, some smashing into the Augury's shield, others the torso. Inside the Augury, Kira had to shake off the shock before the Samyaza stabbed him.

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"_**Well, this isn't at all good."**_ Chimamare though/spoke grumpily. **_"All the action's happening in the air, and unlike last time, no one sending me any toys."_**

"_Well Chimamare, I have to say that the Kiba is rather superfluous in this fight. About the only thing we can do is jump out of the water like a demented dolphin."_ Haji replied snidely, actually relieved that Chimamare didn't have any victims this time. Defeating ones enemies was all well and good, but mutilating their corpses after ward was just wrong.

"_**Whoa! Hold up. Is that Kira? Fighting some new Gundam?" **_

"_It would appear so."_

"_**Seeing as the hottie is Abaddon's daughter, it would make sense that she would get the only Gundam out of the lot, eh?"**i_

"_I....suppose."_

"_**Well, we can't have Kira killing her. If he does, we won't get any!"**_

"_I can't tell what you're actually referring to, and I'm not sure I want to."_ At that, Chimamare cackled as he jetted the Chimamare over to where the two aerial Gundams were fighting.

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A/N: Alright, I'm hurt guys. Only two of you? (Thank you, G. Wagers and Infinite Freedom.) Seriously, that cuts deep.

(" Ah, what would you know, your just a teen. That, and I think your crazy and somewhat inconsiderate author notes are driving them off.")

What are you getting at?

("Sane people don't want to spend too much time around crazies. Look at Jack.")

I'm not nuts.

(" You're talking – typing, actually, - to a figment of your imagination that you are also talking – er, typing – for.")

…..You have a point.

Knightmare Gundam of Ni.


	25. Omake: That Dang Wall

Gundam Seed: Killer's Realm

Omake: That Dang Wall

It was a normal day on the renegade Barachiel. Off-duty crewman were hanging out in the cafeteria, mechanics were pulling bloodied and broken corpses out of OMNI suits, Jack was rooting around the ship for something; dragging Athrun and Kira with him, and Liene was designing MSMDs: Mobile Suits of Mass Destruction.

Of course, something had to ruin this fine day.

"Hah! Found it!" Jack screeched in triumph, dancing around the wall right outside the door to Athrun's quarters.

"Found what?" Both Athrun and Kira asked, in stereo.

"The Fourth Wall!" Both sane pilots sighed at Jack. The guy was already nuts, but now they thought he was getting worse.

"Jack, all rooms have four walls." Kira said, speaking slowly as if to an infant.

"No, you don't understand. The Fourth Wall I am speaking of is an extra-dimensional portal, and always appears during certain events, like when we found Athrun and Cagalli making a robot together. However, The Fourth Wall switches places constantly, following events and people. _This_ is it!" Jack explained, pointing at a distorted looking part of the wall. Shaking their heads, they looked straight at the hazy section, mouths open to deride Jack.

Their jaws dropped, as they looked into the haze and saw.....

"Is that a kid typing on a computer?"

"Yep." Jack said smugly.

"He looks Asian." Kira said, studying the strange individual beyond the Fourth Wall.

"Japanese?" Jack asked, interested.

"No, he seems.....I dunno, I wanna say Vietnamese, but there's just something about his face....."

"Maybe he's a half-and-half."

"Could be." Then the kid looked behind him, and jumped out of his cheap-looking swivel chair, looking scared beyond all belief.

"Hey, I think he sees us." Jack commented, waving at the teen.

The kid looked furious, grabbing a pen, and a sheet of paper and starting to scribble furiously. After about a minute, he shoved the paper against the Fourth Wall. Jack had to squint to read it, the guy's handwriting was so bad.

"You...have to get...away... from...The....Wall....before....you...do....something...irreversible.....Jack-ass....you....could...de...destroy....the,....fabric...of...re..rea....reality....as...we...know..it. Hey! No one calls me Jack-ass!"

Behind Jack, Kira and Athrun coughed. Jack, however, started punching The Fourth Wall. The kid started waving his arms and shaking his head frantically, seeming to plead Jack to stop.

Too late, Jack stopped, as The Fourth Wall cracked.

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"I knew you were one insane bastard, but to actually mess with the fabric of reality? Damn." The kid shook his head. He, the Gundam pilots had learned, called himself Neb, which, according to him, was not his real name backwards.

At the moment, the four of them (plus Neb's computer) were floating in a large white void, made when the very fabric of reality cracked apart and dropped them into a pocket dimension of nothingness. According to Neb, their own reality was actually intact, and only they were sucked in because they were the ones closest to The Fourth Wall. And Neb was sucked in because it was _his_ Fourth Wall.

"So, in one reality, Kira is a crybaby who hates killing?" Jack asked.

"For the tenth time, _yes_!" Neb replied irritatedly. He was typing rapidly on the computer, swearing fiercely every minute or so when he misspelled a word or screwed something up. "Now can you shut up so that I can get us out of here?"

"Whoah! What the hell is that?" Kira said, eyes bugging out as he stared over Neb's shoulder.

"Hey! That's not yours yet!" Neb protested, stumbling as Kira pushed him to the side and Athrun squatted next to the Orb Prince, reading Neb's files.

"Holy Shit, are these mobile suits or mobile monsters?" Athrun muttered, looking over the dozens of designs Neb had in his computer.

"Hey! Look at these!" Kira said excitedly, stopping at a file containing designs for three mobile suits.

"Oh My God........These are awesome!!" Athrun practically drooled, such was his awe at the Gundams he saw.

"Hold up, let's get a look a the opposition first eh?" Jack said, butting in and scrolling through the list. As he reached the part where OMNI's units were, they grew very, very quiet.

"Well....Abaddon gets a big upgrade." Kira choked out, chuckling nervously.

"Damn. That Samyaza is a lot more dangerous than we thought Kira." Jack said.

"Deuterium shells....Fuck." Athrun whispered. By the time Neb had forced them away from the computer, Kira had drawn his knife and was looking weirdly at it, Athrun was staring off into the distance, and Jack was sucking his thumb, rocking back and forth. Neb was back typing at his computer, and triumphantly hit the enter key. A large hole opened up, spilling all matter of mallets, hammers, and harisen (Japanese war fans) and many, many other assorted devices of pain and punishment commonly found in cartoons and anime.

"Whoops, heh." Neb grinned weakly, quickly sealing up the hole with a few lines of code. Jack glared at him, having suffered several whacks to the head. Ignoring the schizophrenic, Neb quickly tapped out another dimension-altering program. This time, a hazy area similar to The Fourth Wall appeared, and they all clustered around it.

"Ah, this isn't _The_ Fourth Wall." Neb said, earning confused looks from the pilots. "It's _a_ Fourth Wall."

"What's the difference?" Jack asked.

"Well, The Fourth Wall, my Fourth Wall, allows me to alter or guide a single reality of my making, while a Fourth Wall, the Fourth Walls these guys use, merely allow them to look at the reality." Neb explained, gesturing at the haze. In it, they all saw several people, peering through the extra-dimensional portal.

"Hey, that guy looks like he's from Oregon." Athrun said, pointing at one guy at the front of the viewers.

"Damn! She's hot." Jack drooled, staring at one of the few girls.

"Alright, alright, enough of that." Neb said crossly. With another few keystrokes, he closed that Fourth Wall and tried again to open theirs. Unsuccessfully.

"Umm...Neb, I don't think that's our stop." Jack said, pointing through the portal at the very, very large monster. Considering that whatever reality the thing lived in was very dark and misty, they could only see that it was at least three times their size, and had rows of long, sharp fangs. And wings.

All four screamed, very high, very loud, and very girly. Just before the beast reached through the portal, Neb closed it, practically feeling the few years of life lost due to that scare.

"Alright, we're not getting anywhere with you picking portals, I'm picking the next one!" Jack snarled, shoving Neb to one side as he started typing. The next portal opened to reveal.....two barrels of a very large gun held by a mobile suit with angelic wings, both barrels glowing an extremely energetic looking yellow.

"Shit!" Neb yelled, pushing past Jack to close the portal. Thankfully, they avoided disaster, the portal closing before the beam cannons (if that's what they were) fired. They all sighed in relief, collapsing on the 'ground' (Or at least, the invisible area of solidity that passed for ground in this non-space).

"Alright, one last try..." Neb said, typing again, this time checking every line of code.

"So, explain to me how your computer can manipulate reality." Jack said.

"Well, it can't really manipulate reality, per se." Neb replied. "It merely allows me to create and alter pseudo-realities of my own making. See, this is actually a story posted online for the viewing of others."

"That means....." The three were silent as the implications hit them.

"Yep. You guys don't exist." With that, Neb grinned as he hit one, final key.

Everything went black.

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A/N: Yep, it's an Omake. Yes, it's weird.

On other things.....

You guys want longer chapters? You do realize that means it'll take me longer to post them right? If that's what you guys want, sure I'll do it.

Velshard: Sheesh, no wonder I haven't heard from you in while. Hope you got the job. Anyway, like I said, it _is_ an important battle. We just haven't gotten to the important part.

Kojiro Kun: nice to hear from you again. Glad you like it.

TheMovieGuy: Thank you.


	26. Phase 15: Isurus Rising

Gundam Seed: Killer's Realm

Phase 15: Isurus Rising

Rau had to admit, these pilots were much better than their brethren in the common military.

For one thing, they decreased his average kill-per-minute from ten to two.

As the next victim charged in, Rau just shook his head at the ease it took to destroy the Constantine, simply blasting it head-on with the Ion Beam Cannon. Another Constantine charged in from the side, beam saber leading while it held it's assault rifle in its off-hand. The Charcharius' right arm extended, and the shield's grapple anchor fired, piercing the mobile suit through, although missing the cockpit. Swinging the anchor, Rau bashed the unfortunate Watcher with one of its fellows, who had been using an anti-ship sword. The tangle was amusing to behold. Finishing off those two with a burst from the Furia rifle, Rau quickly turned the SCAU-XU to lop off the hand of another Constantine wielding a sword with the bayonet.

Just a few dozen meters away, Mu in the Shadowfax danced with two of the Constantines, swerving to avoid linear rounds and pistol beams. Inside the Shadowfax, Mu couldn't be calmer. Unlike last time, it was only two.

As one closed eagerly in, Mu couldn't help but grin. He cut the power to the top two thrusters and SCRamjets, at the same time pulling the Shadowfax's nose up. The result was a loop that put him behind the Constantine. Still grinning, Mu let loose with all his forward weapons, the dorsal beam guns and ventral linear repeaters. The Constantine in question was immediately ripped apart, beam piercing vital components and linear rounds smashing through much of its structure.

Naturally, its friend was much less than pleased.

The Watcher tailed Mu, following every jink and maneuver. Mu almost laughed. He'd been practicing.

Behind the Shadowfax, Tom saw one of the rear guns swivel on its pod to point straight at him.

_Well, I had a goo-_ The linear cannon round tore through the cockpit, ripping out Tom's bloodied, broken corpse along with several scraps of armor.

Still smiling, Mu pulled an Immelman turn, arching the Shadowfax for the larger battle.

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"Well? Hows it going up there for them?" Baryx demanded of his XO.

"Well sir.... it seems that Commanders Le Creuset and La Flaga are dealing with the Constantines, although slower than with the more common ones. Yamato, however, is tied up with the new OMNI unit.

"And the Kiba?"

"Seems to be heading to help Yamato."

"Feh. Well, I guess I'll go help Le Creuset." Baryx said, walking towards the Vosgulov-class' hanger.

"Sir?"

"My Isurus _is_ prepped for launch, correct?"

"Y-yes sir."

"Good." As Baryx left for the hanger, the XO couldn't help but feel sorry for the Watchers. _Three_ aces at one time. Judging from what he'd heard about all of them, and with what he'd witnessed as Baryx's XO, it was like having three asteroids the size of Mount Everest fall on top of them.

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Under the surface of the water, Chimamare waited patiently, just hoping for the chance to snare the Samyaza. Being a homicidal maniac with little or no patience, Chimamare distracted himself with visions of what he'd do. Unfortunately, Haji was forced to witness this as well.

Luckily, they had something else to distract them.

"_**Hey, what's that coming from the ZAFT sub?"**_

"_I would imagine that it is a submersible mobile suit meant for marine combat, both under and above water."_

"_**Who do you think is piloting it?**_ Haji sighed.

"_Obviously, it is Mark Baryx, seeing as there is only one unit, and it is moving towards Rau and Mu's battle. Hmm."_

"_**What? What is it?"**_

"_It would appear that it is moving as fast as, if not faster, than the Kiba."_

"_**Heh, Liene's not gonna like that"**_

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Kira dodged another slice of the sword, followed by a 360-degree turn that swung the Augury's leg into the Samyaza's cockpit. The haloed Gundam responded with a beam from its rifle, which was in turn intercepted by the Kamikaze shield. The Samyaza kicked at the Augury, clipping the winged Gundam's side and spinning it around, which turning into another kick.

"Damn it, just die!" Lena growled, firing the remaining Scalpel laser on the left flange. The beam hit the Excalibur, slicing down to cut off a whole two thirds of the blade. "Hah!" Kira wordlessly discarded the blade, drawing one of the beam sabers. As the Samyaza charged, the Augury fell back, CIWS peppering the face. One of the 75mm rounds struck true, shattering the right camera.

Kira took advantage of this, swinging over to the Samyaza's right side. Sure, the Watcher Gundam had impressive sensors, but they didn't provide the same details as actual cameras.

"Damn it, stay still!" Lena growled, the Samyaza swiping with the sword as Kira threw the Augury to the side. The tip of the blade cut a streak along the left wing, at one point cutting one of the wires that relayed commands to the thrusters. Muttering a curse, Kira quickly reprogrammed the O.S., trying to compensate. Before he could finish, the Samyaza's Devastator swung around, firing a spray of linear rounds and beams. Throwing the Augury into a dive, Kira pulled the black Gundam up short, aiming the Kamikaze along where the Augury would have dove. Kira grinned as he caught the Samyaza in the crosshairs.

Then something silver blocked him.

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Back at Rau and Mu's battle, the Constantines became more cautious after the death of their leader, eventually managing to maneuver the two aces into the center of their formation.

"Well, this is a bit of a predicament." Rau said off-handedly, the Charcharius moving its rifle from target to target.

"It's about to get a bit more troublesome." Mu said, highlighting two Constantines coming from outside the battle. Painted in the normal OMNI colors, each of these was carrying a P-THEL.

Then, one suddenly jerked, diving into the ocean.

"...What was _that_?"

A second later, an underwater explosion sent a column of water sky high, a dark shape rising with it. The shape reached out with one of its arms for the surviving OMNI Constantine, the limb in question exiting the water-column. It was long, with the upper arm segmented like a bug and the lower looking like a club with two finger-like claws and one thumb-like claw. From each claw sprouted a beam, four meters in length. The claws closed in around the Constantine, thumb claw stabbing just under the cockpit while the finger claws sliced off wings and arms. The dark shape – the mobile suit - fell, dragging the OMNI suit with it. Seconds later, there was another explosion.

By now, the Watcher Constantines were floating about nervously, heads swiveling around, trying to keep a look on both the Charcharius and the orbiting Shadowfax and the _rest of the ocean. _

Naturally, they didn't succeed. Almost as if planned, Rau darted the Charcharius towards the closest Constantine, and the ZAFT mobile suit burst out of the water to hook onto two Constantines on the edge of the formation. It was a blocky-looking suit, with squarish legs and shoulders like rounded rectangles. It's head was shaped like a lance, with the monoeye on the underside, and had a fin on its back. Also on the back, to either side of the fin, were two pod-like attachments ending in large barrels pointing downwards

With the propulsion of two Constantines, the mobile suit stayed suspended, hanging onto both of the Watchers. Before any of the others could act, the ZAFT pilot started on the two closest targets. The Constantine ensconced in the left claws exploded outwards, the whole torso ripped to shreds. With the free claw, the aquatic suit fired missiles from a unit on its forearms, six spreading out to hit three Constantines. The shredded remains dropped into the ocean, the torso barely recognizable. With a clenching of its right claws, the ZAFT unit crushed the other Constantine, allowing itself to fall back into the ocean as the other Watcher suits started to fire. Another flight of missiles raced out, smashing into three more Constantines, with much the same effect.

At the same moment, Rau disemboweled his targeted Constantine, while Mu fired hails of beam and linear rounds at the others. To their credit, they managed to duck behind their shields and dodge most of the rounds. Unfortunately, they forgot the aquatic mobile suit. The blocky thing popped up under them, the cannon-like pods flipping to point straight up at two Constantines. The pods fired, dark yellow blasts haloed in blue racing to crash into – and through – the Constantines, smashing them into scrap. Before the other Constantines could react, the mobile suit disappeared beneath the water, only bubbles and some ripples showing where it once was.

"So, Mark. Finally back on the field of battle, eh?" Rau called over on the radio.

"Feh, I couldn't let you and La Flaga get killed now could I? Bad manners for a host." Baryx replied, his Isurus coasting under the sea.

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Kira almost snarled at the sight of the Kiba latching onto the Samyaza's back, non-Shifted claws scrabbling on the Watcher Gundam's front.

"Hey beautiful." Chimamare chuckled, his voice rasping through the speakers.

"Get off of me so I can kill you Jack." Lena hissed, struggling to aim the Samyaza's Devastator, or stab with the Achilles sword. The infuriating Gundam shouldered the rifle's barrel aside and scraped by the blade, pilot laughing.

"Sorry, Jack's not here. I'm Chimamare, and I'll be your host today." Chimamare laughed, the Kiba scraping off the Samyaza's remaining Scalpel laser.

"You're insane!" Lena growled, still struggling.

"Thank you very much."

"Get out of the way Chimamare." Kira ordered, moving the Augury closer.

"Soooorrrryyy, no can do." Chimamare drawled, "I want this dame all to myself."

"Hah!" Lena cried, triumphant. The Samyaza shifted, transforming. A second later, the Gundam/jet accelerated, dragging the Kiba along with it.

"WAAAAHHHH!!!!" Chimamare, screaming, held on for dear life, thrown all over the cockpit by the Samyaza's sudden maneuvering, at one time dashing his head against the console. "Fucking bitch!" He snarled, Phase-Shifting one of the Chilongs, fully intending to maul the Watcher's thrusters. Instead, the Samyaza swerved, diving and pulling out of said dive very, very quickly. Resulting in the Kiba's flying back into the ocean.

"Now...where were we?" Lena asked, transforming the Samyaza back.

"Right here." Kira replied. Just then, the Augury swung, the Phase Shifted edge of the Kamikaze shield slicing off the right arm of the Samyaza's V-fin. Then, the Achilles beam sword practically skewered the Watcher Gundam.

"Hey! That's _my_ sword!" Lena cried indignantly, drawing the Samyaza's back-up knives, both turning from plain gray to a bright silver as their Phase-Shift kicked in. Kira didn't respond, instead choosing to fire off a C15 shell. The Samyaza dodged it quite easily, instead catching the follow-up KP round in the faceplate. The Samyaza flipped over, falling several dozen meters before Lena righted it.

The Augury was right in front of the Samyaza.

Inside her helmet, Lena grinned.

The Samyaza suddenly threw itself at the Augury, right manipulator leading. Instead of trying to stab the black winged Gundam with its knife though, it was going to hit the Augury with its fist. A very long, very thin blade slid out from the Samyaza's wrist, piercing the Augury through its right shoulder. The Gundams backed away from each other, the Augury holding its shield before it while the Samyaza hovered around, looking for an opening.

In the Samyaza, Lena was still grinning. It wouldn't be long now.

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A/N: alright, I lied. This chapter isn't especially long. I could use a myriad of excuses to explain why, but instead, I'll just say I was rereading some stories. Lotta Kingdom Hearts writers seem to like the idea of a dark Sora.....maybe I'll get in on that action.

That, and I'm still working on several of the MS designs for when the gang gets to Orb. Trust me, it's not easy trying to make an MS for the ultimate Coordinator (especially when your main design contributor shows up with a mass-production suit that pretty much makes the Freedom look like crap.)

Then I'm still working on Knightmare Frames too.

And yes, I totally stole the Hidden Blade from Assassin's Creed for the Samyaza. What can I say? It was an awesome game.

Kojira-Kun: Originally, they were going to meet up with the original cast of Seed. And my Kira would kill canon Kira. Painfully.  
("There was blood everywhere, and canon Kira's head was shoved up the Augury's-") Shut up K'GoN!

G. Wagers: Yeah, most people I know say I have an 'unusual' sense of humor.

CroPathfinder: I'll try.

Knightmare Gundam of Ni.


	27. Phase 16: Fallen Angels

Gundam Seed: Killer's Realm

Phase 16: Fallen Angels

It was about a minute after the Samyaza had stabbed the Augury that Kira noticed something wrong. For one thing, the connection to the right arm was almost completely severed. For another, the view in his left camera was flickering.

"I see that it's starting to take effect." Kira was annoyed with the speaker, not in the least because she was probably responsible for the Augury's problems.

"What do you mean?" Kira demanded. Lena laughed, sounding somehow cruel and feminine at the same time.

"When I stabbed you, the blade automatically injected nanites into the Augury, all of which are programmed to utilize environmental materials to multiply. I'm guessing that in about a minute, they'll reach your cockpit and cut the main control circuits, leaving you completely hel-" Lena was interrupted, mainly by the C16 shell that caught the Samyaza in the chest. "Fucking retard! Those shells aren't doing anything!"

"This will." Kira promised, the Augury levering the Kamikaze at the Samyaza. The Watcher Gundam folded its arms, and stared.

"What? One of those KP rounds? It's just a little more energy than those explosives." The Augury almost seemed to shrug before it fired. There was a white streak, with a very slight hint of blue, like a dwarf sun traveling at supersonic speed. Within a millisecond of firing, the projectile was embedded in the Samyaza's left shoulder, and Kira could literally see the Samyaza's armor melting from it. The next instant, the projectile exploded, the Samyaza's arm flying away in no less than ten pieces.

Inside the Samyaza, Lena gaped. Now, she didn't have to rely on the cameras to see the Augury. She could just look out of the enormous hole in the Samyaza's side. "What the hell?"

Kira shrugged. "Thermesium." was all he said.

"Damn." Lena muttered, moving the Samyaza a lot more than before. Even if he didn't have any more of those rounds, now either of the more normal projectiles could finish her off, with the big hole in the armor.

Now both Gundams were circling each other, hovering in the air, The Augury aiming its Kamikaze at the Samyaza while the Watcher covered the hole in its torso with its other arm.

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Despite the continued presence of the Constantines, Rau and Mu were still able to hold a conversation even while fending off the mass-produced mobile suits.

"Oh come on! That time at Lagrange 2 totally counts!" Mu argued, bracketing a Constantine in his reticules. The next instant saw the Constantine pierced through either side of its torso by dual beams.

"Not so. Arthur Black and his Moebius squadron had already depleted my ammunition supplies." Rau calmly replied, stabbing a Constantine through the chest before firing the Furia through the resulting cavity at another.

"Well then, that time over Grimaldi doesn't count either. Hawkman's team took a lot of rounds to put down." Mu muttered back, peppering a Constantine with linear rounds.

"And yet you still managed to shoot my leg off." Rau shot back, slicing his hostage in half before blasting his friend with an Ion Beam.

"And you managed to destroy three of my Gun-pods." Mu grunted, pulling off an especially high-G turn.

Rau's reply was interrupted by a blast of blue-haloed yellow beams from below, each coring a Constantine and tearing the mobile suits to shreds.

"I'm surprised you two can discuss this without slaughtering each other." Mark butted in gruffly, his Isurus piercing another two Constantines with the Horcus Anti-Phase Shift anchors and pulling them down with him.

"Arthur was a sicko. Only got where he was cause of his Blue Cosmos connections." Mu said as an explanation.

"I never knew Hawkman." Rau said off-handedly. Just then, four more mobile suits appeared underwater. Three of them looked almost exactly like ZAMS, except colored mainly deep blue, with a long cannon attached to their back in between what looked like some kind of back thrusters or scale systems. The fourth one looked very similar to the Isurus, except instead of the back-mounted cannons it had missile launchers and was colored a dark blue gray color.

The ZAMS-looking suits emerged from the ocean, all releasing flights of missiles from launchers on their back module, no less than thirty missiles arcing to strike the remaining Constantines, ripping the OMNI mobile suits apart. The Isurus-like mobile suit powered past the ZAMS-like ones, heading straight for Baryx.

"Sir, I believe that we've found where these Constantines came from!" Even over the comms, Rau and Mu could tell the pilot was young, and eager. He could hardly keep the excitement out of his voice.

"Keep your cool Gary. Now, where?" Baryx reprimanded.

"About fifty kilometers away, there's an OMNI flotilla, among them is the Spengler-class carrier Kimmel. The XO thinks that they've modified the Kimmel to support mobile suits. He sent me with White, Fukuda, Segura, and Bogdanov."

"Bogdanov? Where's he?"

"In his IAAMS, providing long-range fire support and targeting data." All three aces looked up. High in the sky, they could barely see a streamlined winged mobile suit, holding a long-barreled rifle. After about a second, the mobile suit noticed them and waved, before raising its rifle and firing off a shot. The ion beam (an extremely small and weak version compared to the ones fired by either the Charcharius' of the Kiba's cannons) blasted through a Constantine that was sneaking up behind the group, very precisely piercing through the cockpit.

"Good." Was Baryx's only reply. Turning to the direction Gary indicated, he led the other aquatic mobile suits away. About fifty meters out, he paused and turned back to Rau and Mu. "You guys coming?"

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Lena yelped, dodging another round from the very, very dangerous Kamikaze, darting the Samyaza away from the linear cannon's line of fire. The situation really wasn't good. The Samyaza was missing a camera, an arm, and pretty much all of its main weapons. She didn't want to use the HALC, as her father had very much specified his interest in getting some parts of the Augury intact, and the pilot, if possible.

She really didn't want to think of the reasons for that.

Still, it was becoming ever more likely that she wouldn't survive this fight without summarily crushing the Gundam. Even with the Augury's failure imminent, she'd probably-

A flash heralded the impact of a round on the Samyaza's remaining shoulder, spinning the Gundam around, before Lena brought it back to face the Augury.

Which was in the Samyaza's face, shield ready to stab.

From below, a spray of water preceded a large spike rising from the waves, before swinging around the Augury's limb, wrapping an almost invisible line around it. The Augury was abruptly yanked down, and instead of stabbing through the Samyaza's cockpit, the shield scarred the transformable Gundam's left side. Kira just managed to keep the Augury from plunging into the surf, using its much-reduced thrust to drag the offending mobile suit to which the spike and line were attached to, pulling the Kiba out of the sea.

"Thanks for the lift Kira!" Chimamare jeered, retracting the MVS before grabbing hold of the Samyaza's leg, quickly climbing back up to its position previous to the Watcher Gundam's rude maneuver. "Now, where were we?" The alter queried, Kiba clutching the Samyaza's waist and shoulder as it peered through the hole at Lena's face.

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"Rear Admiral sir! We're detecting some undersea contacts on the sonar, and three above sea level on the radar." The Kimmel's sensor officer called, keeping eyes on the sensor screen.

"Scramble all Constantines, and launch the Megalodons!" The Rear Admiral commanding the flotilla commanded, shivering slightly. Abaddon never mentioned personally facing Mark fucking Baryx!

Outside, Constantines hooked their feet into catapults as Megalodons were literally shoved off of the carrier's deck. Seconds later, sea foam noted the movement of the submersible armors while the Constantine's thruster flare showed slightly in the darker evening sky.

About five kilometers away, the ZAFT mobile suits and the Shadowfax began their attack, the IAAMS' ion beam rifle spearing several Constantines before the OMNI suits could get close.

Mu danced the Shadowfax around a team of Constantines, dodging missiles, beams, and linear rounds. At one point, darting between two Constantines, he caused them to shoot each other, each inadvertently destroying the other's cockpit section. A few linear cannon rounds and a trio of beams quickly reduced the contingent by two more, their husks falling into the ocean.

Almost next to the mobile armor, the Charcharius worked to Rau's merciless command, its high-energy beam rifle spitting green beams of death, the Furia rifle having long since been exhausted of ammunition, while the Ratus shield's heat blade ruthlessly carved open a Constantine. The pulse laser CIWS mowed down a flight of missiles, detonating them harmlessly more than seventy meters away from their target.

Under the sea, Megalodons powered towards the submerged contacts, pilots eager to add to their WAAM count. However, these pilots had not yet learned the ferocity of the SIMCA mobile suit, and none had ever encountered a relatively rare Isurus suit.

They were mauled.

The two high-mobility aquatic mobile suits darted up from underneath the school, respective claws shredding two each. Before the rest of the Megalodons could react, the SIMCA unleashed its Phonon Masers, piercing two Megalodons instantly. The Isurus Baryon Burst Fire Cannons had a much more devastating effect, the incandescence of the pentaquark bursts seeming like aquatic hellfire to the mobile armors, each blast ripping through a Megalodon. The Isurus started heightening its fire rate, firing multitudes of baryon beams, sometimes hitting a Megalodon, more often slightly nicking one and sending it tumbling through the water

By now, the Megalodon pilots had full intentions to retreat, and tell tales of horrid monsters that lived in the deep. Unfortunately for them, they had been so occupied with the admittedly dangerous pretty baryon beams to notice that the SIMCA had circled around the whole group to block off their main area of retreat.

Being OMNI-trained, the Megalodon pilots had completely forgotten the advantages of underwater combat. Mainly, that of three-dimensional movement. Not that it would have helped.

The baryon blasts became less random and more focused, joined by the SIMCA's Phonon Masers, tearing into the school of mobile armors. Within seconds, all that remained was a cloud of sinking debris that the trio of WAAMs swam through on the way to the flotilla, rejoined by the SIMCA and the Isurus.

In the air, the IAAMS support told the difference, taking care of any Constantines getting too difficult to handle, with the vicious trinity of death veritably slaughtering the OMNI mobile suits, limbs, torsos, and other assorted body parts falling into the ocean. Soon enough, the three were able to turn their full attention to the flotilla, which consisted of the Spengler-class, two Fraser-classes, and four Arkansas-classes.

They never stood a chance.

One of the WAAMs had a Phonon Maser Cannon, putting it to good use immediately along with the other two's torpedo launchers, almost instantly sinking an Arkansas. Without the Megalodons, the flotilla was pretty much defenseless against the amphibious mobile suits. So, they turned all of their weapons against the three units that they could destroy.

"Whoah! Getting antsy aren't they?" Mu muttered, barely dodging a beam from the Kimmel.

"Well, they have probably heard of what happened to fleets that have been attacked by WAAMs." Rau commented. "And then there's the incident with the Nimitz in the Atlantic, when the SIMCA's dragged it down to the sea floor."

"Sheesh, your SIMCA's did that? I always thought one of your subs di-" Mu's astonished comment was interrupted by a single, lucky missile.

It hit the Positron Pulse Detonation Engine.

Thankfully, the actual positrons were mostly exhausted due to Mu's use of the PPDE, but there were still enough to cause a large enough explosion that completely annihilated the thrusters and SCRamjets. The explosion shook the Shadowfax hard, enough that Mu slammed his head into the side of the cockpit, instantly knocked out. Before the Shadowfax could fall far the Charcharius caught it, having holstered its beam rifle. Turning to the IAAMS, Rau asked.

"Bogdanov, I trust you can take care of things here?"

"Aye sir." Without another word, Rau started flying the Charcharius back towards the Barachiel, leaving the IAAMS behind.

Inside the IAAMS' cockpit, Leonid Petrovich Bogdanov grinned as he had the IAAMS unhook a grenade from one of the racks on the forearms, and dropping it on one of the Frasers.

He loved his job.

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Rear Admiral Ethan Lam absolutely hated his job. Well, now he did. Before it had been all peachy, using a literal school of Megalodons to deal with the extremely dangerous WAAMs, and use the flotilla's armaments to devastate any surface warship of ZAFT's he saw.

He never counted on coming across Baryx.

The ZAFT aquatic commander was originally a space team commander who had a bit of fame as the trainer of the renowned Rau Le Creuset. When ZAFT had finally set foot on Terra Firma, Mark Baryx quickly started making a name for himself as ZAFT's commander of the 1st Fleet's Z.N.S Tharsis Montes, as well as an elite pilot of the SIMCA.

By himself, in just one mobile suit, he was responsible for the destruction of no less than eleven ships and their accompanying groups of Megalodons, and as a part of his ships entire MS detachement, his force had accounted for at least an entire fleet's worth of ships.

So naturally, Ethan now wished that he had gotten into a safer and more enjoyable profession. Like bartending.

"Admiral, contact coming up fast beneath the ship!" the sensors officer called, panicked.

_Aw, shit_.

The Isurus tore through the hull of the Kimmel, blades designed to pierce the extremely resilient Phase Shift Armor cut apart the hull like knife through cloth, ripping a path to the upper deck. Lifting itself by its arms, the Isurus stood there for a second, legs dangling above the hole. The mobile suit's monoeye stared through the bridge windows at Ethan, like an orb from hell.

The Rear Admirals only reaction was to slouch down in his chair, looking away from the sight while his crew panicked.

The next moment saw the Isurus' Baryon Cannons levering over its shoulders, glowing. The discharge ripped through the bridge, tearing an infinity-like figure in the structure. Releasing its grip on the hull, the Isurus dropped back down through the hole, splashing in the water that rapidly filled the breach.

Baryx dived the Isurus deeper before leveling out his path, coming out from under the sinking ship.

"Damn Dad, that was awesome!" Gary yelled, his SIMCA actually doing sort of jig.

"On duty, I'm Commander Baryx, not 'Dad' Gary Jones Baryx." Mark reprimanded.

"Yeah, yeah....Sir." Gary grumbled, turning his SIMCA to follow the Isurus as they left the WAAMs to finish. Unknown to either Baryx, the three WAAMs pilots were snickering at the banter.

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Kira almost cursed profoundly when the Kiba resumed its place on the Samyaza's back. With the Augury getting torn up on the microscopic scale, he didn't have any time to waste in dealing with the Samyaza.

"Get back Chimamare!"

"Fuck off Kira!" At that point, the Samyaza elbowed the Kiba in the face, knocking the silver Gundam slightly off of it. A large cannon emerged from the Samyaza's back, mounting itself over the Watcher Gundam's remaining shoulder.

Kira instantly recognized it. It was a miniaturized HALC, from some of the G Project's theoretical schematics. Like the original HALCs used by the Berials and the Barachiel, it used both rail and gauss magnetic systems.

He couldn't do anything about what came next.

The Samyaza flew backwards rapidly, before firing while still moving. The shot blasted straight into the Kamikaze, going through both shield and limb to embed itself in the Augury's side. Jack took back control of his body, horrified by what happened next.

The Augury was blasted apart, armor, endoskeleton structure, and other parts flying everywhere, melting all the while from the extreme heat. Most of it wasn't anything like solid by the time Jack processed it. His reaction was obvious.

Without a word, the Kiba's claws Phase-Shifted, gripping onto the HALC's barrel and slicing it apart. The other claw ripped off torso armor, clawing for the cockpit. The Samyaza didn't take this lying down, smacking the Kiba in the head again while powering up its thrusters. The duo flew into the sky, angling off towards the horizon.

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"There's no way....it can't be true....." Cagalli said, slumping down on the bridge floor. Similar expressions were on the faces around her, from Murrue to Athrun.

"Come on....there's no way Kira can be dead....right?" Kuzzey said, looking down. Everyone else was silent, understandably.

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A/N: Well, that's the end of that battle, and I must say, the Samyaza has managed to distinguish itself in this fight. Next up is a tech file.

G. Wagers: I've already got a prologue up. It's actually on hiatus now, seeing as I'm working on Killer's Realm. No one else has said anything about that, and I've had no troubles.

FraserMage: Yeah. Well, won't take too long to turn that around.

Kojiro Kun: Next Omake, I promise.


	28. Technical File 04

File 04

**CGAT-000-01-INC **(incomplete)

_Praetor_

Pilot: Edward Abaddon

Unit Type: Advanced All-Purpose Command Unit

Manufacturer: Azrael Industries

Operator: OMNI Enforcer Special Operations Unit "The Watchers"

Height: 18.56 Meters

Weight: 89.05 Metric Tons

Armor: Prototype Titanium-Hyperdiamond cermet, Reinforced with thickened graphene oxide sheets.

Power Source: Experimental High-Performance Superinsulated Battery, Compact Energy Capacitor

Propulsion: Plasma Thrusters, 1 x Gravitic Repulsor

Operating System: Standard High-performance Interfaced Transintelligence version 1.5

Special Systems: AMBAC, Mirage Colloid Stealth, Prototype Geschmeidig Panzer Mirage Colloid Field Producer.

Equipment and Design Features: 1 x Phase Shift Shield, Laminated Armor,

Fixed Armaments: 2 x 80mm CIWS  
1 x Pulse Medium-Energy Laser  
2 x Micro-Missile Launchers

Hand Armaments: 1 x 50mm 'Leonidas' Beam Assault Rifle/'Mercer' Beam Sword  
2 x Beam Sabers  
2 x Beam Pistols

Bio: The personal mobile suit of Vice Admiral Edward Abaddon, the Praetor is actually an incomplete version of its original design, having been hastily prepared for combat in light of the theft of the original G Units. Originally, it was meant to be a full-fledged Gundam developed from the Constantine, with Phase Shift Armor and an advanced operating system. Instead, it was hastily equipped with a prototype armor material, a somewhat more enhanced version of the Constantine's standard O.S., and a repainted Constantine head and camera system.

However, this doesn't mean that it performs any less well. Indeed, it is quite able to match up against any of the Gundams, in a one-on-one fight. It merely lacks the same durability, sensors, as well as the correct systems and controls to make full use of its admirable motive systems. Even with these drawbacks, with Abbadon piloting it, the Praetor is difficult, if not nigh-impossible to defeat.

It's primary armaments consist of the new 'Leonidas' Beam Assault Rifle, which uses new supercompressed, superconductive materials to allow the rifle to fire fully powered beams at an average rate of approximately 11 beams per second. Attached to the bottom of the rifle is the 'Mercer' Beam Sword, with an approximate length of 12 meters, although a somewhat relative low density compared to beam sabers. The last main weapon is a pulsed medium-energy laser mounted in the center of its three-armed sensor fin.

Secondary weapons include the CIWS, five millimeters larger than the ones mounted on the Gundams, back-based micro-missile launchers, and beam sabers and beam pistols in similar positions to the Augury's.

As an incomplete Gundam model, the Praetor possesses several special systems not seen in most production mobile suits. Among these is a system for the generation and manipulation of Mirage Colloid particles in both stealth and Geschmeidig Panzer forms. However, along with its armor and sensor systems, the Praetor was activated without some of its specialized systems.

Given the recent lack of combat time for Edward, it is presumed that he shipped back the Praetor to JOSH-A for completion, upgrading the mobile suit to full Gundam Status as the 'Azazel'.

**XGAT-400**

_Samyaza_

Pilot: Lena Abaddon

Unit Type: Tactical Command and Aerial Assault Unit

Manufacturer: Azrael Industries

Operator: OMNI Enforcer Special Operations Unit "The Watchers"

Height: 18.54 Meters

Weight: 80.78 Metric Tons

Armor: Electroactive Titanium/Boron Oxide Crystal Matrix Alloy reinforced with Graphene Nanosheets.

Power Source: 1 x Compact High-Energy Capacitor, 4 x Superinsulated Batteries

Propulsion: Multiples Plasma Thrusters, 2 x Magnetic SCRamjets, 4 x Gravitic Repulsors

Operating System: Generation Updated Neohuman Dynamic Attack Module

Special Systems: Satellite/Mobile Suit Link, Pathing Calculation Program

Equipment and Design Features: Experimental BCPU Neuro-Control Interface, Tachyon Communication Network, Hypersonic Fighter Transformation,

Fixed Armaments: 2 x "Igellstellung" 75mm CIWS  
1 x 150mm Hyper-Accelerated Linear Cannon  
2 x "Scalpel" Tactical High-Energy Lasers  
2 x "Hashish" Monomolecular Phase Shift wrist-blades  
2 x "Storm" Beam SMGs

Hand Armaments: 1 x "Devastator" 45mm Beam Rifle/Linear Repeater  
1 x "Achilles" High-Power Anti-Ship Sword  
2 x Phase Shift Wire-Guided Knives

Bio: A new series of XGAT unit, the Samyaza is was designed to operate specifically against the Gundams captured by the renegade Barachiel crew and ZAFT, and it's designated BCPU pilot, Lena Abaddon, is second only to Edward Abaddon in skill and notoriety among OMNI. As a part of the new BCPU sub-unit inside the 'Watcher' Spec-Ops unit, the Samyaza is equipped with the special control interface designed specifically for the Extended Naturals.

As a transforming Gundam, the Samyaza is somewhat more instable than its predecessors, although it is far more agile. As a result of its anti-gravitational repulsors, it's weight during active combat is approximately 40% less than non-combat activity, although its normal active combat time is cut in half, a flaw that was partially nullified by the inclusion of superinsulated batteries. Unlike the Verin, which incorporates a PPDE and has greater acceleration, the Samyaza's strengths lie in its quick maneuverability and turning ability, as well as its capability to distance itself from an enemy.

The Samyaza's main weapons consist of the 'Devastator' Beam Rifle, which mounts a single-barrel Linear Repeater underneath with a 20mm bore and 250 round magazine; the 'Achilles' Anti-Ship sword, and the 'Scalpel' Tactical High-Energy barrels.

Secondary weapons are the Igellstellung CIWS, the 'Storm' Beam SMGs, and the Phase Shift Knives.

For.... 'special' circumstances, the Samyaza has access to a miniaturized, back-mounted HALC loaded with special-made deuterium fusion shells. The weapon is meant as a siege or anti-ship weapon, and also incorporates a projectile-eject system in case of misfire. Another special weapon is the 'Hashish' Phase-Shifted Wrist-Blades housed inside the forearms. Each blade is monomolecular sharp, and in turn houses a special nanomachine factory and injection system. When the Hashish pierce a mobile weapons armor, the nanites invade the enemy machine and begin reducing its internal systems to so much molecular scrap.

The Samyaza's armor, as with all of the BCPU-designed Gundams, is made of a new cermet consisting of crystalline matrices of bonded titanium and boron suboxide molecules, increasing not only tensile strength, but also thermal conductivity, allowing it more resistance to beam and laser weaponry. Unlike the other BCPU Gundams, the Samyaza also has a layer of graphene nanosheets in between an outer layer of the cermet and an inner layer of it, giving it even more endurance than almost all the other Gundams. Using the new Trans-Phase Shift armor system, the Samyaza is able to have similar endurance as the First Stage Gundams with less energy consumption by activating the Phase Shift at the precise spot where a physical round will land. However, as a result, the rest of the armor, not Phase Shifted at the same time, develops micro-fractures from the physical strain, causing the BCPU Gundams to require maintenance more often.

The Samyaza possesses the capability to turn into a streamlined fighter form, wherein its arms fold onto its back and the legs reverse to fold so that the SCRamjets intake ports are allowed maximum access to the slipstream. The resulting form resembles the Shadowfax mobile armor, and the Verin's fighter form, excepting the lack of the Positron Pulse Detonation Engine. As a result of its placement on the back, the HALC is usable in this form, although it would not be used in any conceivable air-to-air combat.

In order to facilitate its use as a tactical command unit, the Samyaza uses a satellite/mobile suit up link that allows it to link together the entire BCPU team and their allies via a stealth OMNI satellite system in adjustable intermediate circular orbits. This allows for a greater degree of coordination amongst the team. Theoretically, at least.

A rather special, if experimental, system on the Samyaza is the Pathing Calculation Program, which, in theory, allows the Samyaza's targeting computer to calculate the possible paths of any object within ten kilometers of the Samyaza's sensors. However, the PCP is incapable of calculating more than twenty-five individual trajectories, which limits it's combat capabilities to far less than the dreams of its programmers. Nonetheless, the PCP still gives the Samyaza far more tactical and strategic power than normal, allowing the Gundam to dodge incoming projectiles with ease, as well as target its own weapons. Still, the PCP relies on logical paths and previous data, which further limits its use against newly designed or erratic units.

For the GOOhN Replacement

Original Mechanical Designer: Velshard

**UWMF-101AO** (Amphibious Operations)

_WAAM_ (Water Adapted Mobile Suit)

Pilots: Andrew White, Tatsuhiko Fukuda, Luca Marino

Unit Type: Water Adapted Assault Mobile Suit

Manufacturer: Asimov Design Bureau

Operators: ZAFT; various civilians

Height: 18.7 meters (with railgun in standby mode) 27.9 meters (with railgun in combat mode)

Weight: 94.7 metric tons

Armor materials: Titanium ceramic composite

Power Source: Ultra Compact Rechargeable Energy Battery x 2

Propulsion: Scale System, 4 x small Hydroramjets, mounted on calfs; 2 x large Hydroramjets, mounted on back

Operating System: Composite Rapid-Action Program

Special Systems: Networked Assault System

Equipment and Design Features: Advanced Acoustic Detection System; Active/Passive Sonar Array; "Lorenzini" Electric Field Sensor; Ultra Long-Wave Data Communication System; 1 x periscope, extends from center back unit; 9 x Weapons/Equipment hard point, 2 on each shoulder, forearm, hip, and outside calf, 1 on dorsal skirt armor

Permanent Fixed Armaments: 2 x 5-barrel 2-shot 220mm water tight missile launchers, mounted on shoulders  
2 x 7-barrel 2-shot 533mm Super-Cavitating Torpedo/SUBROC Missile Launcher, mounted on forearms  
1 x "Uruk" 500mm rail gun, fires large HEAP (high explosive armor penetrating) rounds, mounted on back  
2 x 8-tube 381mm SUBROC Vertical Missile Launcher, missiles arranged in 2x4 pattern, mounted on back

Optional Fixed Armaments: N/A

Optional Hand Armaments: MMI-TA01 Combined Phonon Maser/405mm Torpedo rifle  
1 x phonon maser  
4 x 3-shot 405mm Super-Cavitating Torpedo/SUBROC Missile Launcher, hand carried in use, may be stored on hip armor hard points  
MMI-TA02 Phonon Maser Cannon, hand carried in use, may be stored on hip armor hard points  
MMI-TA03 "Quros" 2-shot SUBROC Anti-Hard Target Cruise Missile launcher, hand carried in use, may be stored on hip armor hard points  
MMI-TA04 1030mm 2-shot MK.70 Large Super-Cavitating Anti-Ship Torpedo launcher, hand carried in use, may be stored on hip armor hard points

Bio: During the course of the war ZAFT creates many variants of their standard MS the ZGMF-101P ZAMS for use in different environments as well as acting as a stop gap for MS specifically designed for those environments. The WAAM is one such variant, because most of the WAAM's external and internal components are virtually identical to the ZAMSSO(Surface Operations) type, used en masse on the earth's surface, it is easy to convert a ZAMSSO to a WAAM. Also thanks to the ZAMS standard bell like upper torso it is easy to modify it to the point of being able to withstand a great deal of pressure allowing it to operate in depths up to 650 meters, unfortunately this does not keep the machine totally out of the striking range of OMNI's war machines.

This unit's primary purpose is to act as an amphibious version of the TFA-30 CUMAR, being purposefully geared right from it's inception to be an attacker instead of a fighter like the SIMCA and it's variants. As such the WAAM standardizes a number of heavy armaments for fleet and shoreline assaults, it's largest and most distinctive weapon is a massive 500mm Railgun mounted in the center of it's back. The Uruk fires a Teflon coated HEAP round that is designed to reduce barrel wear, a unique feature of these HEAP rounds though is a gyroscope that allows them to change their flight path for artillery style strikes at extreme velocities. The WAAM can quite literally just fire the Uruk in the general direction of it's target and hit it with a precision attack thanks to information being fed to it's targeting system by airborne IAAMS. This Railgun is integrated directly into the WAAM's back pack system, for simplicity, the rail gun is built on two powerful linear magnetic joints, one that controls the guns firing angle by allowing it to rotate 90 degrees up and down, to either point straight up or directly in front of the MS. And the second, which due to this weapons ungainly size, folds the Railgun flat against the WAAM's back for storage when it's on board a ship or undergoing maintenance. One major flaw in this weapons design is that it can't be fired underwater and it's superconducting rails must remain relatively dry in order to safely function as such most of the time the Uruk's muzzle is covered by a water tight seal. This means that the only time the gun can be fired is on the surface and even then it must be done with some care to avoid filling the barrel with water. Additionally the rail gun is water cooled so when it is out of the water there is an additional waiting period between shots unless a source of deep enough water is close by. Despite these flaws though, this weapons devastating precision has made it well worth the trouble to use.

With the appearance of OMNI's Megalodon unit's WAAM's have begun taking a bit more of a back seat because of their inherent vulnerability to these vastly more maneuverable mobile armors. The WAAMs and their Mariners are effectively sitting ducks against Megalodon units despite their arsenal of weapons, meaning that they now rely more upon the protection provided by SIMCAs in order to operate effectively. Otherwise their relatively slow speed of 40 knots leaves them wide open to attack, granted WAAMs have a superior operational depth to Megalodon's but it doesn't get them deep enough to keep Megalodon's from literally torpedoing them to death. Because of this ZAFT's Submarine commanders had to take more care in how and when they deployed their forces in order to minimize losses and capitalize on the WAAM's use.

In terms of propulsion the WAAM's is simply adequate, just enough to get it where it needs to go efficiently but not with excessive speed both on land and at sea. The weapons/equipment hard points on it's calves permanently incorporate a carriage for two hydro ramjets, one on the back of the calf and one on the outside with a scale system unit between them for added maneuverability. Aside from the Uruk rail gun, the WAAM's back unit is also it's main means of propulsion integrating two large hydro ramjets and a massive scale system unit between them, which the Uruk is attached to. On either side of the scale system unit, between the hydro ramjets are a pair of 8 tube SUBROC missile launchers mounted on hydraulic arms. When in the water these launchers normally lay flat against the WAAM's back but when on land or simply when the machine is oriented upright these launchers also lift up from the back so they can continue to fire vertically in the air on any conceivable target.

Built into the scale system unit is a periscope as well as a powerful communications and electronic warfare pod attached to a 200 meter long retractable cable. Often times lone units will be sent out simply to act as relay stations for ZAFT communiqués as well as acting as an early warning and search unit. The WAAM, thanks to it's more human hands, also functions well as a salvage unit, to help in this as well as it's search functions the unit's head has what appears to be a pair of cat like ears. Aside from the expected sensors for aquatic combat, they also each incorporate a powerful search light for both salvage operations as well as personnel recovery.

In regards to the WAAM's other armaments, the water tight missile units on it shoulders cannot be used underwater, this is primarily due to the expensiveness of SUBROC munitions. However that is not to say they are ineffective but most Mariners prefer to use them during shoreline assaults only, unlike the forearm mounted torpedo/missile launchers which are significantly more versatile. One of the benefits of having normal manipulators though is slightly greater versatility in the unit's armaments, the WAAM can hand carry a number of different weapons as well as store them or more hand carried weapons on it's hip hard points.

Thanks to the unit's tactical value, ZAFT would eventually refine the WAAM's design and create their own version of it in the years to come, the UMF-7A WAAMR would serve in conjunction with the UMF-6E Isurus much more effectively than the current unit.

D/N: based off the ZAMS and inspired by the UWMF/S-1 GiNN WASP type this unit is colored in the same manner as the GiNN WASP. The back pack unit looks like the scale system one on the MBF-P03 Gundam Astray Blue frame with the GINN WASP's back thrusters on either side of it, the rail gun looks like the nose assembly of the MSA-005 Methuss from Zeta Gundam and is attached directly to the top of the scale system unit. The arm mounted torpedo launchers look exactly like those on the UMF-4A GOOhN.

For the ZnO/GOOhN Replacement

Original Mechanical Designer: Velshard

**UMF-6** (Underwater Maneuver Fighter)

_SIMCA_ (Submersible Interception Maneuver Craft Attacker)

Pilot: Gary Baryx

Unit Type: Mass Production Transformable Amphibious Mobile Suit

Manufacturer: ZAFT controlled Maius Military Industries (MMI ZAFT armament designer)

Operators: ZAFT (Zodiac Alliance of Freedom Treaty); various civilians

Height: 17.9 meters (standing on legs) to 21.1 meters (standing on arms)

Weight: 71.4 metric tons (varies slightly upon armament)

Armor materials: Layered Titanium and Stainless Steel Alloy

Power Source: Ultra Compact Rechargeable Energy Battery

Propulsion: Scale System, 2 x High-Output Plasma Verniers; 2 x Hydro Ram Jets

Operating System: Composite Rapid-Action Program

Special Systems: Networked Assault System

Equipment and Design Features: Advanced Acoustic Detection System; Active/Passive Sonar Array; "Lorenzini" Electric Field Sensor; Ultra Long-Wave Data Communication System; 4 x Weapons/Equipment hard point, 2 on each forearm and 2 on back to either side of the dorsal fin; 1 x periscope, extends from back of dorsal fin;

Permanent Fixed Armaments: 2 x Large Phonon Maser High-Energy Cannons, mounted one in each hand  
6 x sonic claw, mounted in tip of each finger  
8 x 533mm Super-Cavitating Torpedo and SUBROC Missile Launcher, 4 mounted in each shoulder unit, 5 missiles/torpedoes per launcher;  
2 x Electromagnetic Tow Cable  
1 x Tungsten Carbide Head Lance  
1 x monomolecular dorsal blade.

Optional Fixed Armaments/Equipment: "Bolos" Multipurpose Hand Missile Unit, equips to forearms only  
"Jagra" 12-tube 381mm SUBROC Vertical Missile Launcher, missiles arranged in 2x6 pattern mounts on back only  
"Quros" SUBROC Anti-Hard Target Cruise Missile, mounts on back only  
1030mm MK.70 Large Super-Cavitating Anti-Ship Torpedo, mounts on back only  
Auxiliary Power Unit, increases operational time limit by 100 percent per unit attached, mounts on back only  
Personnel Transport Pod, can carry 9 average adults hygienically for 78 hours, mounts on back only

Optional Hand Armaments: N/A

Bio: The SIMCA is an underwater mobile suit developed for ZAFT's invasion of Earth, and deployed along major shipping routes in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. The SIMCA was designed along the same lines as all of ZAFT's other suits in terms of functionality, versatility, ease of maintenance, and the capacity to be easily modified. Much like it's cousins the IAAMS and GAHMU, the SIMCA was built with the anticipation of fighting other mobile weapon systems and the development of new technologies that might need to be added to the design. The Original SIMCA, designation UMF-6, makes up roughly 45 percent of ZAFT's aquatic MS, while another 45 percent of it's aquatic suits are UWMF-101AO WAAM. The last 10 percent of their aquatic MS were enhanced SIMCAs equipped with technology based off the stolen G-series, these units, designation UMF-6E, were changed only slightly but boasted vastly improved performance. The UMF-6E, code named Isurus, essentially just replaced some components in the original unit, meaning that most of ZAFT's regular compliment of SIMCAs would eventually be upgraded in a similar way. However a few SIMCAs would also be equipped with the "Siren" Mirage Colloid Aquatic Enhancement System as well as slightly more traditional legs, these units, designation UMF-6S, also conveniently called Sirens, would be for the exclusive use of aces, commanders, and special ops.

The SIMCA's double hull is made from a layered titanium and stainless steel alloy that is incredibly resilient to damage and extreme undersea pressures. Theoretically the unit can reach depths in excess of 1400 meters (765 Fathoms) but most pilots won't take their unit's past 1000 meters. As an additional pilot safety feature the SIMCA's cockpit is constructed in a similar fashion to a bathysphere and is also pressurized in case of the SIMCA's outer and inner hulls being breached. Due to the incredible depth SIMCA's can reach units will frequently wait in one spot for hours on end with only their passive sensors active waiting to ambush an unlucky enemy. Frequently, instead of directly fighting OMNI's new Megalodon MA, SIMCA pilots learned to lure the machines down into deeper depths before attaching their EM tow cables to the Megalodons and dragging them down to their crush depth, which is apparently around 500 meters.

Due to the incredible structural strength inherent in an undersea design, the SIMCA is perhaps the most durable MS in ZAFT's arsenal next to the CUMAR. Due to needing to have a fully intact central hull the SIMCA is much like the IAAMS in that it is harder to service than other units. But because of it's higher quality of construction repairs usually aren't a very problematic issue, except for in the case of major breaches in the central hull.

Cosmetically the SIMCA seems to take design cues from a Mako Shark with it's long lance like head and narrow body, this was actually intentional in order to make the suit even faster and more maneuverable in aquatic combat. It's lance like head isn't just for show however, it is constructed from incredibly hard tungsten carbide with incredibly sharp wedge like edges, making it a highly effective ramming and hull breaching tool. On the SIMCA's back is a large dorsal fin that incorporates control surfaces into it for additional mobility as well as a periscope for surface scouting and laser target acquisition for it's SUBROC weapons when it wishes to stay hidden. The dorsal fin also incorporates a monomolecular blade into it's leading edge so in addition to the psychological effect of seeing a fin breaching the water in a very shark like fashion, the SIMCA uses it's dorsal fin to strafe enemy ships and rip open their hulls.

On either side of the SIMCA's dorsal fin are hard points for equipping a variety of different items, from vertical launch SUBROCs to batteries to personnel carrying units. Originally used simply for weapons alone the SIMCA soon became very useful as a high-speed aquatic courier for special forces teams as well as personnel since realistically nothing in OMNI's arsenal can touch a SIMCA when operating at extreme depths.

The SIMCA's arms are very versatile in terms of their number of uses, starting at it's shoulder's wedge shaped appearance, each shoulder contains four multipurpose torpedo launchers along with three fins for maneuvering, 1 on the front back and side of each shoulder. The shoulders can freely rotate a full 360 degrees allowing the SIMCA to fire it's torpedo tubes in any direction while still keeping it's flexible arms in use. The unit's arms consist of 5 large interconnecting segments that give it's arms a shocking power to weight ratio of nearly 3.5 to 1, giving the SIMCA tremendous strength.

It's "hands" are large club like appendages ending in three large multi-jointed claws distributed evenly around the hand's circumference. The end of each of it's six claws is tipped with a sonic cutter for obviously more effectively piercing an enemy's hull, this is also assisted by the impressive crushing power of it's claws, capable of crushing and tearing through most machines armor and appendages with relative ease. Additionally the SIMCA's arms can be effectively used as maces, using it appendages to literally bludgeon enemy machines to death with ease. Incorporated directly into the SIMCA's hand is a large phonon maser cannon that is highly effective for point blank attacks but isn't suited well for anything beyond mid range engagements. It should also be noted that these phaser's effectiveness decreases even more as the density of the medium their traveling through decreases, meaning that in the open air their range is even shorter. Also incorporated into each hand is an EM tow cable primarily used for mundane purposes, ZAFT mariners adaptively learned to use them as weapons as well, their use against OMNI's Megalodons being one good example. But perhaps one of the most morally catastrophic and well documented cases of this is when a dozen SIMCAs attached their tow cables to the bow of OMNI's 1st South West Atlantic Fleet Flagship, the CVN-1068 Nimitz, and subsequently dragged the ship and it's 8,000 plus crew into the depths.

The unit's legs are relatively short and stumpy affairs that are essentially just a pair of feet around a pair of large hydro ramjets, though it's legs can support the suit and move it adequately enough on land the SIMCA's legs are not it's main means of propulsion on land. Due to the machine's design the SIMCA's motive system is less like a human's and more like a Chimpanzee or Gorilla, with their relatively short legs and very long arms these great apes rely more on their arms to move quickly on the ground. The SIMCA frequently "walks" on it's massive hands, lifting it's body off the ground and swinging it's legs out in front of it while splaying it's claws out for balance and traction. And despite it's appearance, the unit is shockingly fast and agile on land, thanks to the power of it's arms, capable of out pacing ZAFT's ZAMS, ZONGS and SCAUs with ease. The SIMCA proves itself to be a very effective unit even on land and difficult target to hit thanks to it's unusual movements.

Specially designed hard points on the SIMCA's hand allow it to equip multipurpose hand missile units that are meant to carry a plethora of different missile types. These missile units are effectively one hit wonders, because they completely encase the machines hand they must be used first before the SIMCA can use it's other hand armaments. The missiles inside the Bolos can be virtually anything the pilot wants so long as the selected missiles all fit inside. When in use the Bolos fires all of it's missiles at once, at either one or multiple targets with the Bolos' outer shell acting as blast panels to protect the arm from the rocket exhaust.

Incorporated into the SIMCA's back are a pair of high-output plasma verniers that can generate tremendous amounts of thrust when out of the water, underwater the SIMCA can reach speeds of around 70 knots, inferior to the Megalodon's top aquatic speed of 85 knots. But on the water's surface the SIMCA can reach speeds in excess of 300 knots by using these verniers, jetting across the water's surface like a sea skimming missile in order to quickly close on surface targets. Unfortunately this leaves the unit more exposed to surface fire so ZAFT mariners employ a dolphin like leaping and diving method to negate this vulnerability to a degree.

SIMCA pilots often work very closely with their IAAMS counterparts using highly coordinated attacks to deliver an incredibly effective tactical and strategic one two punch against OMNI's naval forces.

D/N: primarily based off the OZ-09MMS Pisces from Gundam Wing, and elements from the UMF-5 ZnO from GS, and the MSM-03C Hygogg from MSG 0080: War in the Pocket. Appearance wise it is very much like the Pisces, keeping it's torso, legs, and shoulders, but modifying them all a bit. The arms are a hybrid between the Hygogg and the ZnO's with the ZnO's claws and the Hygogg's club like arms and the multi-segmented upper arms being a bridge between the two. As I said before the shoulders are like the Pisces except with two less torpedo tubes and looking visually more like the OZ-17MS Serpent. The SIMCA's legs are virtually identical to the Pisces except with the hydro ramjets incorporated directly into them. The torso is perhaps the most modified, being longer and wider than the Pisces while making it more streamlined. The Pisces head has been lengthened and flattened into a definitive lance with the eye/face being replaced with that seen on the UMF-4A GOOhN. The Bolos hand missile units are also virtually identical to those used by the Hygogg. The dorsal fin on it's back looks like the ZGMF-X31S's MX-RQB516 Beam Lance's physical blade. In terms of coloration it has pink optics and is painted a dark blue gray.

For the ZnO/ASH Replacement

Original Mechanical Designer: Velshard

**UMF-6E**

_Isurus_

Pilot: Mark Baryx

Unit Type: Mass Production Transformable Amphibious Mobile Suit

Manufacturer: ZAFT controlled Maius Military Industries (MMI ZAFT armament designer)

Operators: ZAFT (Zodiac Alliance of Freedom Treaty); various civilians

Height: 18.4 meters (standing on legs) to 21.9 meters (standing on arms)

Weight: 77.0 metric tons (varies slightly upon armament)

Accommodations: pilot only in pressurized reinforced cockpit

Armor materials: Layered Titanium and Stainless Steel Alloy

Power Source: Ultra Compact Rechargeable Energy Battery

Propulsion: Scale System, 4 x Hybrid High-Output Plasma Verniers/Hydro Ram Jets

Operating System: Composite Rapid-Action Program

Special Systems: Networked Assault System

Equipment and Design Features: Advanced Acoustic Detection System; Active/Passive Sonar Array; "Lorenzini" Electric Field Sensor; Ultra Long-Wave Data Communication System; 4 x Weapons/Equipment hard point, 2 on each forearm and 2 on back to either side of the dorsal fin; 1 x periscope, extends from back of dorsal fin;

Permanent Fixed Armaments: 2 x Baryon Burst-Fire Cannon (BBFC), mounted one in each hand  
6 x Variable Beam Claws  
8 x 533mm Super-Cavitating Torpedo and SUBROC Missile Launcher, 4 mounted in each shoulder unit, 5 missiles/torpedoes per launcher  
2 x "Horcrus" Anti-PS electromagnetic grapple anchor  
1 x Anti-PS Head Lance  
1 x Anti-PS dorsal blade

Optional Fixed Armaments/Equipment: "Bolos" Multipurpose Hand Missile Unit, equips to forearms only  
"Jagra" 12-tube 381mm SUBROC Vertical Missile Launcher, missiles arranged in 2x6 pattern mounts on back only  
"Quros" SUBROC Anti-Hard Target Cruise Missile, mounts on back only  
"Houtos" Large Super-Cavitating Anti-Ship Torpedo, mounts on back only; Auxiliary Power Unit, increases operational time limit by 100 percent per unit attached, mounts on back only  
Personnel Transport Pod, can carry 9 average adults hygienically for 78 hours, mounts on back only  
"Oxyrinchus" Attack Booster Unit, 2 x Baryon Cannon, 2 x extended power units, 2 x Hybrid High-Output Plasma Verniers/Hydro Ram Jets, must be equipped to both back hard points to be used.

Optional Hand Armaments: N/A

Bio: An enhanced version of the SIMCA, the Isurus is virtually identical to it's predecessor in terms of appearance and basic construction but incorporates new technologies based in part on that acquired from the stolen G-series. The Sea Wolf is slightly larger and heavier than it's original form but this is out of necessity, due to it's change in armaments and enhanced propulsion systems.

The Isurus replaces it's Dorsal blade and head lance with Anti-PS blades, vastly increasing their effectiveness and durability without compromising the unit's design. The biggest change in this machine's armaments though are in it's hands, starting with replacing the SIMCA's Sonic Claws with beam based ones that have variable containment fields and particle density. The Isurus's new beam claws can be used under water by decreasing the size of their containment fields and increasing the beams particle density, creating meter long beam claws capable of incredibly precise cuts if necessary. By reversing this process outside of the water the Isurus instead creates three near full sized beam blades per hand and between these and it's arms great length and flexibility, the Isurus have proved themselves to be even more dangerous close range combatants than their predecessors.

The Isurus has also replaced it's original EM tow cables with the same type of Anti-PS Grapple Anchor pioneered by the SCAU-XU Carcharius, for increased functionality as weapons.

The biggest and perhaps most valuable change in it's armaments though is the replacement of it's PHASER (phonon maser) Cannons with Baryon Burst Fire Cannons. These experimental Baryon particle weapons were apparently created via information traded to ZAFT by someone within the Morgenroete Conglomerate in exchange for some of ZAFT's initial experimental energy weapon designs. Normally Baryon particles consist of only three quarks but ZAFT's Baryon weapons artificially generate exotic ultra heavy pentaquarks. Beam weapons function by using intense thermal and kinetic energy to burn through conventional defenses virtually instantaneously with very little collateral damage. By comparison a baryon particle weapon effectively pulverizes the atomic structure of whatever solid structure it hits and creates massive collateral damage as a result making them a very effective weapon. Another benefit of these weapons is their superior range both in and out of water compared to their previous PHASER weapons since they essentially shove liquids and gases out of their path of travel without using as much energy. One flaw in these weapons is their significantly higher energy consumption, however the pros of a baryon weapon far exceed this con. But to address this problem to some degree, both arms now contain Miniaturized Rechargeable High-Energy Capacitors, based off of those used by the G-series as their main power source, that act as a supplementary power supply to these weapons. Additionally these weapons particle discharge is variable, they can fire a large powerful beam at longer intervals to cause much greater damage or they can rapidly discharge much smaller beams in machinegun like bursts to conserve energy. Two unique properties of Baryon weapons is how they react to Phase Shift Armor and Mirage Colloid Energy Deflection armor, when a baryon shot impacts PS armor instead of punching through it, it will instead 'splash' across the surface of the armor. Compromising and destroying large sections of PS armor, either destroying the equipped suit or leaving it vulnerable to conventional weapons. Mirage Colloid Energy Deflection Armor can effectively divert the energy of both beam weapons and anti-matter weapons. But just as a baryon shot would 'shove' gases and liquids out of it's path of travel it would also shove the gaseous synthetic Mirage Colloid particles out of it's way to directly impact their target. Despite this ability to effectively bypass Energy Deflection Armor completely, it is simply not viable to generalize this weapons use due to the relative rarity of the system amongst OMNI Enforcer.

The Baryon Cannon's fire looks like blue-haloed yellow beams in atmosphere, a result of the incendiary particle friction reaction, which increases significantly in the denser water, causing the beams to resemble bolts of burning magnesium.

One of the more simple modifications in the Isurus's design, inspired by OMNI's new Megalodon MAs, is the addition of more Scale System units to it's body thereby increasing it's overall speed and maneuverability. An additional aid to this increase in performance is the replacement of it's leg hydro-ramjets and back plasma verniers with a new hybrid engine that could function both as a plasma vernier and hydro-ramjet. This is thanks to the use of a mixture of linear and magnetic induction technology that also allows the engines to switch between the two modes of operation in an instant. Thanks to this the Isurus boasts an incredible performance increase of nearly 57 percent allowing them to reach a top sub-aquatic speed of 110 knots. Though by comparison it's surface skimming speed has only increased by a relatively small margin of about 15 percent giving it a surface speed of 345 knots. However in a rather memorable incident one commander Marco Morassim used this increase in speed, along with his new Anti-PS and beam weapons, to quite literally punch a hole through one side of the central draft of OMNI's 2nd North West Atlantic Fleet Flagship, the CVN-1076 Ronald Reagan, and out the other with virtually no damage to his own unit.

An unexpected though useful bonus of effectively having 4 relatively powerful plasma verniers was the ability to launch themselves at even OMNI aircraft and get high enough to shoot them down with blasts from it's BBFCs. On land this gave the machine an even nastier bonus in maneuverability even though it already boasted impressive speed and agility beyond that of most of ZAFT's land based units.

Perhaps the final deadly nail that makes this unit a masterpiece in it's field is the creation of the "Oxyrinchus" Attack booster unit that incorporates two large hybrid engines, two simplified Baryon Cannons, and two power extension batteries, that under normal operating conditions triples the machines operational time. The primary purpose of this pack is not only to increase the machines speed and operating time but also allow the unit to function very well as an actual assault MS, a job usually reserved for UWMF-101AO WAAM. Aside from the insane increase in raw speed of nearly 200 percent, the real draw of the Oxyrinchus pack though was the two large Baryon Cannons on it's back that could fold forward to point over it's shoulders. These weapons combined with the ones in it's hands allowed the Isurus to deliver a devastating amount of firepower in rapid succession on one target after another.

Though this unit would undergo some modifications as it's service life continued the Isurus would remain ZAFT's mainstay Marine MS for several decades to come.

D/N: aside from it's arms being larger this unit's only other change is that it will now have a mottled blue color scheme for camouflage. The attack booster looks like the back thrusters of the UMF/SSO-3 Ash with a cross between the CIWS/Beam weapons of the YMF-X000H Dreadnought H Gundam replacing the torpedoes as the Baryon cannons. Isurus Oxyrinchus is the Linnaean Classification of the Short-finned Mako Shark it along with some select music from the movies "Jaws" and "Deep Blue Sea" inspired this suit and it's previous incarnation.

For the DINN Replacement

Original Mechanical Designer: Velshard

**AMF-201**

_IAAMS_ (Independent Airborne Attack Mobile Suit)

Pilot: Leonid Bogdanov

Unit Type: Mass Production Aerial Combat Mobile Suit

Manufacturer: ZAFT controlled Maius Military Industries (MMI ZAFT armament designer)

Operators: ZAFT (Zodiac Alliance of Freedom Treaty); various civilians

Height: 18.2 meters

Weight: 39.8 metric tons

Armor materials: Laminated Carbon Fiber and Kevlar, interwoven with Titanium Strands

Power Source: Ultra Compact Rechargeable Energy Battery

Propulsion: 4 x Large High Output Plasma Verniers

Operating System: Composite Rapid-Action Program

Special Systems: Solar Energy Conversion System (SECS totally unintentional), Networked Assault System

Equipment and Design Features: 7 x Weapons/Equipment hard point, 2 on each shoulder, forearm, and hip armor, 1 on dorsal skirt armor; 2 x integral storage units, store magazines, energy packs and grenades; 2 x Composite Polymer Solar Energy Absorption Wings; 1 x 50 million candle power spotlight in lower torso

Permanent Fixed Armaments: 4 x 10-tube multipurpose missile launchers, mounted in top of back thrusters and lower leg assemblies, fires regular warheads as well as chaff and flare scattering warheads

Optional Fixed Armaments: M65 "Felis" 8-barrel small missile launcher, mounts on shoulders, forearms, and hip armor  
M68 "Pardus" 3-barrel missile launcher, mounts on shoulders, forearms, and hip armor  
M70 "Hamon" 550mm FAE (Fuel Air Explosive) triple grenade rack, mounts on shoulders, forearms, and hip armor (just MS sized hand thrown grenades)  
M71 "Tessis" 64mm triple barrel vulcan gun, stores 450 rounds, mounts on forearms (essentially a modified version of the CGUE's shield vulcan)  
M8585 Ultra Light Reactive Armor Palette Shield

Optional Hand Armaments: M72 "Lupus" Ion particle beam sniper rifle (the sniper rifle used by the original LRR GINN), must be hand carried at all times  
MMI-M8A3 76mm heavy assault machine gun, hand carried in use, may be stored on hip and dorsal skirt armor hard points  
MMI-M9A1 133mm battle rifle, hand carried in use, may be stored on the hip and dorsal skirt armor hard points (basically a bigger version of the M8A3 that favors precision and power over rapid fire)  
MMI-LR200S combined 142mm super-conducting linear rifle and 190mm 6-shot hyper-velocity long range laser guided rocket launcher(looks like SRW's Ox Tongue rifles from the Wildfalken and Weissritter, it's rather large), must be hand carried at all times  
M76 "Furcas" 2-shot cruise missile launcher, hand carried in use, may be stored on hip and dorsal skirt armor hard points  
M77 "Badis" 3-tube 3-shot, Large missile laucher, 9 missiles total, hand carried in use, may be stored on hip and dorsal skirt armor hard points  
M78 "Hadis" 4-tube 4-shot, Medium missile launcher, 16 missiles total, hand carried in use, may be stored on hip and dorsal skirt armor hard points;

Bio: The AMF-201 IAAMS was designed specifically for sustained aerial combat in Earth's atmosphere, of course this was easier said than done resulting in a unit that was admittedly exceptional in terms of overall performance, but had abandoned one of ZAFT's most useful design features. Because of the role the IAAMS was meant to take on, it was essentially a whole new kind of MS; meaning that it was only very loosely based on ZAFT's other suits at the time of its conception.

To be as suited to aerial combat as possible the IAAMS was made to be very light, its chassis is almost 70 percent aluminum alloy with titanium strengthening key stress points. Its armor is made almost exclusively from laminated sheets of carbon fiber and Kevlar, reinforced with hundreds of titanium strands to further decrease its overall weight. This armor proves itself to be highly effective against tungsten carbide armor penetrators, Flak rounds, and some medium sized missile warheads. However when an IAAMS sustains damage from a battle this is when the biggest flaw in its design becomes apparent. The IAAMS lacks many ZAFT suit's ability to rapidly replace parts, because it returned to a more traditional frame design in order to further reinforce the Suit's chassis during high-speed maneuvers. Because of this the IAAMS is somewhat difficult to maintain and service, requiring many more man hours than most suits, that being said the IAAMS is a very reliable and versatile unit, so long as it's properly maintained.

The IAAMS was made as streamlined as possible for most any direction of flight, its upper torso being very narrow and streamlined along with its arms and shoulder armor. The lower torsos notably contained a very powerful spotlight for night operations and aside from its more traditional use many pilots would also use it to temporarily blind an opponent and open them up for an attack. Its head was somewhat oddly shaped; seeming to take a cue from both the CUMAR and ZAMS in that is was fairly small but kept its cycloptic eye while lengthening the back of the head to include more powerful sensors and communications equipment. The IAAMS most unique design feature is perhaps its lower legs, each one is actually one massive plasma vernier wrapped in an exoskeleton that attaches to the knee assembly. This leads to the impression that the IAAMS is standing on high heels, thanks to the large landing struts coming out of the front and back of its legs that appear to be feet. In reality the IAAMS has no ankle joints to speak of; meaning that when the unit is walking on the ground it is extremely clumsy, needing to take short shuffling steps in order to keep from toppling over. Now to some this seemed foolish, but seeing as the IAAMS really shouldn't be meandering on the ground too often is legs were given identical thrusters to the ones in its back pack to greatly increase its speed and maneuverability to a nearly unsurpassed degree.

The IAAMS doesn't have a CIWS instead integrated into the external calf of each leg and its backpacks flight modules are 10-tube multi-purpose missile launchers that can fire a plethora of different rounds. Primarily the rounds were various flare and chaff scattering missiles for defense against enemy missiles, they could of course also fire more traditional small warheads and smoke rounds.

The IAAMS also keeps ZAFT's pioneered optional component hard points except for the ones on its legs. It's hip armor was lengthened so that the hip hard points are now around mid-thigh level while over its hips are integral storage devices for carrying spare magazines for it's more traditional weapons. The IAAMS' flight unit consists of two separate movable pods that can rotate up and down 90 degrees for increased mobility, mounted dorsally on each of these pods is the multipurpose missile launcher. The two plasma verniers in each pod are of the same model as the ones in its legs and on their own can provide more than enough thrust to enable the IAAMS to fly. This gives the IAAMS great redundancy meaning that so long as at least two of its verniers are still functioning it can fly, with all four working however the IAAMS can easily reach speeds in excess of Mach 2.5, making it a wonderful interceptor. The IAAMS best feature is perhaps it's wings, a pair of folding, morphable, inverse deltas, attached to the outside of each flight pod that are made from a special solar conductive polymer that provides an extra resource of power. It's wings will actually stretch open due to their flexible nature, with the whole wing morphing it's shape to better suit the flight conditions or change direction giving its wings an oddly life like look to them. Though to some the addition of a solar power system may seem to be a fairly simple idea, this high efficiency solar energy conversion material could greatly extend the unit's overall flight time and loitering ability during sunny days to nearly twice what its battery could provide so long as its pilot was fairly conservative with their flying.

In terms of Armament the IAAMS could use most of its successors and forbears' equipment and weapons but it could also use 5 specialized weapons designed for its use specifically. 3 of these weapons were hand carried missile launchers that fired cruise missiles, large missiles, and medium missiles for armament versatility. The fourth weapon was a light weight reactive armor palette shield that could effectively block up to three direct hits from a large missile or artillery piece. The fifth and perhaps most unique weapon was the rather large LR200S assault weapon that was meant almost exclusively for airborne attacks from standoff ranges. Its main weapon was a 142mm linear rifle that could discharge its large rounds at an incredible velocity; it's most devastating weapon however were the hypervelocity SCRAM jet rockets. The rockets were limited to six rounds and were best used against hardened targets at long range, after being fired they are guided onto target by a targeting laser. What made these rockets so deadly was the speed at which they traveled, thanks to their SCRAM jet engines they could reach speeds in excess of mach 4 at sea level, imparting a great deal of kinetic energy to the point of impact along with its shaped charge HE warhead. The only downside to this weapon was its size and weight, it was not only very unwieldy but greatly decreased the IAAMS speed and mobility making the unit very vulnerable to attack at short to midranges unless it discarded the expensive piece of equipment.

In the years to come the IAAMS design would be refined with new weapons and technologies along with the creation of specialized electronic warfare and C2 (command and control) units.

D/N: the two things that I need to clear up is that the head looks like the Throne Gundam Drei's for the most part except the face looks more like the Jagd Doga's but with only one monoeye. The torso is virtually identical to the AME-WAC01 DINN Special Electronic Installation Type with that little orange sensor in its lower torso being where its spotlight is at. Color wise they are primarily gray, white, and sky blue for some camouflage.

A/N: Alright, I'm sad. Velshard has excuses: he's pretty much providing me with half of the mobile suits for the story. But the rest of you?

Anyway, since none of you have yet to send me anything in regards to MS designs....I've decided to come up with an incentive. To the first person who can provide me with a design for a transformable mobile suit for Mu (or at least a concept) that I like, I'll write a ficlet on any subject concerning Killer's Realm. A character's backstory, the revised backstory for the canon characters, a battle that has yet to take place in the story, whatever.

The MS just has to be transformable, and made especially for Mu. As for the design template, well, just look up.

G. Wagers: Thank you. The trouble is that, considering the characters involved, and the Mobile Suits, it's really just too easy. And then there's Velshard coming up with his Mobile Monsters......

Knightmare Gundam of Ni


	29. Phase 17: Survival of the Sanest

Gundam Seed: Killer's Realm

Phase 17: Survival of the Sanest

**Indian Ocean, Grigori, Brig**

**February 3rd, 71 C.E., 6:53 A.M. Local, 3:53 P.M. Orb**

"Ugh..." Jack groaned, lifting his head up. Almost instantly, a sharp pain sprouted on the right side of his head, feeling remarkably like a kick from a size 8 women's steel toe boot. Upon trying to lift his hands to cover the side of his head and protect it from further damage, Jack discovered something. Mainly, the three handcuffs that kept his arms wrapped around what felt like a metal bed post.

Opening his eyes, Jack looked around. All-in-all, it was pretty standard prison layout. Steel-covered room, filthy toilet, metal bunk bed...it could have been ripped out of any movie where the protagonist gets caught by the villains. Except for the horde of soldiers standing in front of the door, both of the Abaddons at their head.

"Nice to see that you're awake." Lena sneered, wiping her bloody boot on the bed.

"Nice to see you at all babe." Jack grinned, winking. Lena's other boot whipped out, smacking Jack's head against the bed post. When Jack turned his head to look at her, his eyes were bloodshot, and a very disturbing wide grin, enhanced by the blood in his mouth.

"Uh...Lena, I don't think you should do that again." Abaddon, said, resting his hand on her shoulder.

"Why not?"

"He's starting to foam." Looking back, Lena could see that was true. Blood-red foam was starting to dribble out of Jack's mouth, and he was starting to look more than a little crazy. Then he started screaming.

"I'm gonna kill you, slice you open, and go to an aerobics class wearing your intestines as leg warmers!" Jack (actually Chimamare) screamed, froth splattering the floor in front of the Abaddons.

"I think you made him mad." Sariel commented from the door.

"And you! I'm going to kill you, drain all your blood and take out your bones, put your body on a chair with a bunch of elves and reindeer, sit on your lap and tell you all the cool shit I want for Christmas!" Chimamare screamed at Abaddon, actually forcing the guy back a few steps. Mainly cause of the foam.

"Let's......leave Mr. Kagizaki alone now, shall we?" Edward said, shaking his head. With Sariel quickly slipping out the door, the soldiers slowly filed out, Abaddon following, leaving Lena alone with Jack (and Chimamare, and Haji). Leaning in closer to the pilot, Lena sneered in his face.

"I hope you like your new home, because you're never getting out." A very strange change came over Jack, eyes becoming cold and emotionless, foam ceasing production, and his expression becoming as blank as Kira's.

"I'll get out of here." Haji promised quietly. "And it won't take me half a day." Lena laughed at that, standing straight and striding through the door.

"_**Perfect Haji, now go back in your corner and let me do the rest!"**_ Chimamare growled, already mentally drooling at the images of gore-streaked corridors, corpse-strewn quarters, and the taste of blood.

"_No, I don't think so."_ Haji retorted. Naturally, Chimamare was flabbergasted. Haji, standing up to him? The persona that didn't have the strength to overpower Jack, the one that preferred making random math problems out of ordinary, everyday things, and instantly measuring objects without the use of any tools?

"_Yes. For one thing, I suspect that we're going to have to get to the hanger and steal back the Kiba, and considering how large the Barachiel's mobile suit hanger is, what makes you think your close-range combat style will help in the Grigori's?"_

"_**Oh shut up and-"**_ Chimamare didn't get a chance to finish his demand before Haji stood up, throwing the three handcuffs on the bed before walking up to the door and ripping apart the command panel to get at the wiring.

"_**What the- How did-"**_ Haji wordlessly tossed a paper clip to the side, starting to sift through the wires and circuit boards.

Chimamare was silent.

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**Indian Ocean, Unidentified Island**

"Uugghhh...." Kira groaned, sitting up. Leaning forward, he was almost sick, retching a few times, but thankfully not actually vomiting. After a few seconds rest to make sure he wasn't going to spew, the Orb Prince stood, shaking a bit as he looked around. Something caught his eye. It was a very bland shade of gray, and it took a few moments study for him to recognize it.

The half-melted head of the Augury.

Scowling, Kira walked slowly over to it, trying not to upset his stomach. It was, indeed, the Augury's head. He barely recognized the misshapen V-fin, and the grill faceplate was completely gone, the liquid metal having flowed over the grill and sealing it when it froze from the sea water. The 'forehead' had melted somewhat less than the rest, a little metal having managed to drip into where the cameras had been. Parts of the 'cheeks' were missing entirely, probably having been melted off completely.

The overall impression was that of a human skull dipped in melted plastic.

Kira half-snarled, half-frowned at the image, before turning away, walking towards the hilly, rocky inner part of the small island, leaving the Gundam's head to glare balefully west, across Africa and towards the Americas.

The definition of the word 'augury' is, among other things, a portent or omen. Fortunately for the Earth Alliance, this was one Augury they would never see again. Unfortunately for them, they still had yet to learn from it the dangers in the future.

Well, sucks to be them.

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"So, what's your analysis?" Edward asked. At the moment, he, Lena, and Sariel were in the medical officer's quarters, talking about their new 'friend'.

"Classic Dissociative Identity Disorder." The officer replied, going over the tapes from the cell camera. "The subject has displayed three personalities: Jack, which appears to be the dominant or original one, Chimamare, and Haji. There's something interesting about this though..."

"What?"

"The three personalities seem to correspond to the three parts of Freud's structural model of the psyche, the id, ego, and superego."

The three Watchers just looked at the officer dumbly.

"Chimamare, the more violent and impulsive personality, is similar to the Id, which is essentially the primal part of the personality that just wants things. For example, in combat, Chimamare seems to seek out opponents in order to satisfy his bloodlust. Jack is similar to the ego, which mediates between the Id, the Super-Ego, and the real world. He tries to control Chimamare."

Seeing that he hadn't lost his audience yet, the Medical Officer continued.

"This new one, Haji, is analogous to the Super-Ego, which strives for perfection and attempts to act in a socially acceptable manner." Both Abbadons and Sariel nodded at that. Thus far in the escape attempt, Haji had been performing as any trained soldier would, eliminating targets and moving on, whereas Chimamare would've taken a few moments to mutilate them. "Also, it seems that Chimamare and Haji correspond to the right and left sides of the brain, respectively."

"And that means...." Sariel trailed off.

"The right side of the brain, which Chimamare seems to be attached to, is the more artistic and emotional side, the one that specializes in intimacy, colors, impulsiveness, and the like."

"What makes you say that?"

"Well, it seems that Chimamare took over for a moment to do something with that guard." Scooting to the side, the officer let the three see that rather talented painting Chimamare did with the guards blood.

"Ah"

"And it seems that Haji is the left side, which is mainly used for calculations, efficiency, science, technology, and planning. Which should be rather self-evident." It was indeed, as Haji had managed to use his calculating ability to achieve a perfect accuracy with his pilfered assault rifle, and seemed to have an actual objective.

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Sliding along the wall, Haji looked around the corner before dashing out, rolling behind one of the three guards. As he rolled, he fired exactly three bullets from the OAR-4 he wielded, accurately shooting each guard through the head. As soon as he landed on his feet, Haji took off, running down the hall at a breakneck speed as the sound of running boots echoed.

Skidding to a stop in front of a door, Haji slung the rifle as he started typing on the door's keypad, quickly breaking the code and sliding in the room. IN the room, about ten soldiers spun to face him, handguns rising to aim squarely in his face. Haji jostled the rifle, causing it to fire a random burst.

Or so it seemed. The bullets ricocheted violently, each embedding itself in a soldier's body. With all of the soldiers now grasping their wounds, Haji lifted the rifle and fired once for each soldier, quickly killing them while he moved to the console. Easily bypassing the passcode screens, Haji started sifting through the hundreds of thousands of gigabytes of data, searching for the hanger door codes.

Not two seconds later, he burst through the door, running down the hall and passing a patrol of five guards. Without looking, he held out the rifle ans hot them.

"_**Goddamn fucking show-off."**_ Chimamare grumbled, as Haji made his way towards the hanger doors, where a whole two squads awaited him. For a second, the twenty or so soldiers, all packed like sardines into the tight corridor, just stared at him. Then the ones in from dropped down on one knee to allow those behind to fire on the alter.

Unfortunately, Haji had already retreated behind the corner after tossing a grenade down the hall. About two seconds later, there was an explosion, with various bits and pieces flying out towards Haji's corridor cover. Stepping around the corner, Haji didn't give the shattered remains a second glance as he jabbed in the door code, opening the hanger.

For the most part, it was an enormous empty space, with most of the mobile suit berths empty. Chimamare chuckled as Haji passed them, moving towards the damaged Kiba. The alter cackled as they passed the Samyaza, still with the almighty gaping hole in its side.

Just before reaching the Kiba's berth, Haji stopped in place and turned around to look at three berths covered in front by black tarps. Frowning, the alter stepped up to the control panels for them, when a shout caused him to look back at the hanger entrance.

"Destroy!!!"

He almost lost his head to a knife wielded by what looked like a teenager with red hair. Backpedaling, Haji turned and ran for the Kiba, the red-head on his heels. Without looking, the alter fired a random spray of bullets over his shoulder, forcing the teen back.

"_**Note to self: Find out who this kid is. I like his style!"**_

Muttering at Chimamare, Haji quickly hacked the control panel for the berth the Kiba was in, releasing the silver Gundam from the ropes and chains that held it to the berth. He jumped into the cockpit, forgoing the usual catwalk in favor of speed. Skipping through the start-up protocols, Haji ran the Kiba towards the hanger catapult door. With a flash of silver, the Chilong claws sliced open a rectangle through the laminated armor, allowing the Gundam to fall out of the Grigori, and into the ocean.

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A/N: Alright, first off, I'm really, really sorry for the two weeks or so between this and last chapter. This computer ain't getting healthier. Plus, Junior year sucks more than I thought it would, and it hasn't even been a month since school started.

Yes, Chimamares first few lines were taken from Army of Two. Philip Clyde was hilarious before his death.

On happier news, I finally got a brainwave as to what I'm gonna do with Lacus!

Any way, I'm probably gonna have to follow this up with a short Omake just to let me get everything sorted out, but instead of the usual random shtick, I think I'll do a short Character Q and A session. Send in questions for your favorite characters please. And yes K'GoN, you'll be appearing in it.

("Whoo-hooo! Daddy's back baby!") Shut up

Knightmare Gundam Of Ni


	30. Omake: K'Gon's Interview Show

Gundam Seed: Killer's Realm

Omake: K'GoN's Interview Show

Warning: Rated R, Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian 21 or older. The parent/guardian is required to stay with the child under 17 through the entire showing, even if the parent gives the child/teenager permission to see the show alone. This show may contain strong profanity, graphic sexuality, nudity, strong violence, horror, blood and gore.

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The audience sits in a darkened room, only the glow of camera monitors casting any light. Then, suddenly, several spotlights turn on, casting a brilliant glare onto on spot on the stage: a two-meter pole topped with a rather tiny chair, made for something about three inches tall. And indeed, a certain three-inch tall horrid combination of Knightmare Frame and Gundam mobile suit lounged in the puny chair, holding a microphone of equally small size.

Beaming, and causing much of the audience to pale, retch, faint, or clutch at their hearts and keel over, the disgusting little beast announced:

"Hello, and welcome to K'GoN's Interview Show, starring: Me! K'GoN!" K'GoN grinned wider, causing an elderly couple close to the front to instantaneously wither into dust.

"Today, we have with us the stars of the somewhat idiotic-" At this, several panels on the floor and ceiling folded inwards, revealing fourteencarefully aimed and calibrated turrets of both railgun and beam gun varieties. "-and yet undeniably successful fanfiction Gundam Seed: Killer's Realm!" The turrets retracted into the floor and ceiling, panels folding back over them until you couldn't tell they were ever there.

"First off, Kira Yamato-Athha!"

One of the spotlights swerved to illuminate said guest, who was waving a little unenthusiastically, scanning the crowd for someone wearing a Blue Cosmos symbol.

"Athrun Zala the Bachelor!"

Another spotlight cast its radiance upon Athrun, some of its light being reflected by his large and shiny forehead into the crowd and permanently blinding two fangirls, forever affixing his image into their retinas, much to their everlasting ecstasy.

"Future Orb Ruler, Cagalli Yula Athha!"

Again, a spotlight maneuvered to show Cagalli, sitting straight in her chair with her arms folded and legs crossed, dressed in her guerrilla outfit and frowning.

"Ace and all-around cool guy, Mu La Flaga!"

The former OMNI ace reclined back in his chair, grinning at the audience and cameras, even as the gamma rays of his personal spotlight burned a circle around him, yet failing to hurt him in any way.

"Designer of Mobile Suits of Mass Destruction and close friend or acquaintance of Kira and Jack, Lien Van Dalygon!"

The engineer/technician/programmer sat calmly in his chair, coolly studying his surroundings.

"Resident walking insanity ward and expert swordsman/gunslinger/pilot, Jack Kagizaki/Chimamare/Hajikidasu!"

Instead of a chair, Jack was restrained to a titanium platform with bands of unbreakable metals tying down his arms, legs, neck, chin, fingers, toes, and ears. Still, he managed to twitch a finger and bat an eye.

"And helping us with the questions for those who we were unable to kidnap -er, _invite_, to our show, Neb, and his Four Walls!"

A distorted area appeared on the wall behind K'GoN, showing Neb at his computer desk, bowing to the audience and cameras, unfortunately showing the numerous mobile suit/Knightmare designs surrounding a poster of the Ptolemaios female crew members in bikinis.

"Alright, before we get started, anything you......let's see, one, two, three....six wanna say?"

Kira: "If I find out any of the audience is a Blue Cosmos member, I'm strafing this building with my new Gundam.

Athrun: "Oh, ye mighty Author in the sky: Why don't I show up more?"

Cagalli: "What Athrun said, only more threatening and less pleading."

Mu: "Why are we on this show when we should be fighting a war?"

Liene: "Can we get this over with?"

Jack: "I need to pee."

Neb: "You saw nothing" _Does Jedi mind trick, unsuccessfully_.

"Alright, first questions are from the first of the only two people who sent questions: Mordalfus! First off, for Jack."

"'Dear Jack, What do you think would happen if some guy from the Earth Alliance, who has no idea who Kira was, decided to teach Kira to fire a gun while among a class trainees and in a enclosed room?'" For a second, Jack lays on his platform, pondering, for all of two milliseconds, before answering in a slightly hysterical tone.

"You kidding? Kira would've stabbed the guy and eviscerated his trainees before he got to asking. Although, I suppose if Kira went along with it, he'd spend the entire time trying to shoot them, and instead hitting the bulls-eyes before chucking the gun at the instructor and dismembering the lot of them."

"Next: Dear Chimamare, Haji and Jack  
What are your thought on Kira? Considering he is MIA or even KIA, you're in a soundproof box, and yet both Cagalli and Athrun are watching you?" As K'GoN read the question, a solid steel box lowered around the schizophrenic, shielding him from the gazes of the two mentioned.

"Wait, hold up," Jack's voice, in the tone that said Chimamare was controlling, said. "They can't hear me? The audience is surrounded by sound-proof glass where the speakers are set up so that no one on the stage except K'GoN with his mechanics and Neb with his computer can hear?" Everyone leaned closer at that, Kira, Cagalli and Athrun listening intently.

"Awesome! In that case, I think Kira's a stuck-up little prick who needs to loosen up a bit more and kill everyone!" Then Jack's voice shifted to the somewhat cold yet more humane voice of Haji.

"I think Kira-san is a master at anything he puts his mind to, and a terror in close-combat or mobile suit battle situations." Then Jack took completely over, sounding normally insane, instead of bat-shit crazy, 'help-the-pink-elephants-are-attacking-me' hyped-up-on-crystal-meth voice of Chimamare, or the way too cool, calm and collected voice of Haji.

"Kira's a great friend, and is the first one to not try to stab me, shoot me, or actually kill me in any way shape or form."

With that, the steel box lifted up, showing Jack.

"Next up is one for Cagalli: If Jack ever bad mouthed your brother, how would you go about torturing him? Would you invite Liene and Yzak?" Cagalli sat for a moment, contemplating.

"Well, first of all, I can't go about torturing people just for bad-mouthing Kira. It's just not right." She grinned. "I'd have to send him to Kira." Jack's horrified look was pure gold. "As for Liene and Yzak, I'm sure they'd happily volunteer their services." At Liene's ghostly smirk, Jack promptly soiled himself, drawing disgusted gazes.

Cackling, K'GoN continued.

"For Kira, if Jack (or Chimamare) ever insulted Cagalli, how would you torture him/them?" The response was immediate.

"It wouldn't do to reveal any of my methods, although in that case, I do have something in mind...." As he spoke, Kira's eyes drifted to a door marked 'Dressing Room', where the spotlight followed his gaze to alight on what looked like an iron maiden hooked up to a generator and filled with needles that glowed an eerie green.

"And the last one from Mordalfus, for Chim, if Cagalli painted the Kiba Pink, how would you react without killing her?" Jack's expression shifted to the insane look of Chimamare, complete with bloody foam.

"Well, first of all, that wouldn't happen, as Cagalli hates the color pink. Secondly, she's too professional to do that, and last.....well, I don't have the guts to do anything past publicly embarrassing her in some way. Such as with those photos I caught of her and Athrun last week." At their expressions of horror, he grinned. "And don't think I wouldn't do it, _Princess_."

K'GoN had to grin at that, causing some more of the audience to faint.

"Well, the last of the two to actually submit questions, shame on the rest of you, the ever-popular Velshard, real-world designer of ZAFT's entire arsenal of mobile suits, and real-world designer of Orbs future MSMDs. First off, we have a question for the trio of OMNI Constantine pilots from the Watchers unit, Ensigns Hiro Hetare, Pyotr Ivanovich Lebedsky, and Kalani Johnson. As we don't have them physically here, we'll have to use one of Neb's look-but-don't touch Four Walls." As he finished, Neb instantly typed in several hundred codes at a rate of 500 gross words per minute, opening a Fourth Wall to the PLANTS Martius Five colony.

The image showed a horde of ZAFT Green Uniforms, sitting in what looked like a bar, applauding what was.....the three OMNI pilots, up on a stage. Even as everyone watched, Pyotr took a long chug from the tankard of alcohol in his hand, threw the empty glass behind him, and started speaking.

"Hey guysh, what do you call a Blue Coshmosh member who likes Coordinators? A Blue Coshmo-NOT!" As the entirety of the bar's drunken occupants laughed, Neb commented.

"I thought Russians could hold their liquor."

Even before the part-time author finished speaking, Hiro swayed, spilling half of his drink.

"Hey! I can time travel!" freezing, the former Watcher member waited a whole thirty seconds before grinning and saying "Shee!?! I'm in the Fewture!" Laughing, the audience in both the studio and the bar watched as Kalani dropped his glass on the floor, and reached into a top hat, pulling out.... a surfboard.

"Shurf'sh up guysh!" he chortled, as a literal wave of what looked like red wine poured out of the hat, bowling the Californian-born Hawaiian over.

"Well, that answers Velshards first question." K'GoN guffawed, waving for Neb to close The Wall. "Next, Haji has to answer: Do you ever feel ashamed of being a part of Jack?"

"Constantly." Haji answered, before retreating back into Jack's mind.

"Oooookaayy....Athrun: If a Tsundere blond girl wearing a dress falls down in a hangar full of Tetsujins, do the Mobile Suits laugh?"

"Erm.....what's Tsundere mean?" Athrun asked, confused.

"Tsundere is a Japanese concept of a character archetype which describes a person with a conceited, irritable, and/or violent personality that suddenly becomes modest and loving when triggered by some sort of cause (such as being alone with someone)." Liene provided, tonelessly.

"Oh. Well, I don't know anyone like that who wears a dress. But, I think that's more of a question for Kira, considering that' he helped program the Tetsujins, or so I've heard." Athrun said, turning to his friend.

"Well," Kira said. "That kinda depends on the pilot's sense of humor."

K'GoN snorted. "Well, that's been cleared up...._not_. Anyway, our next question is for Kira: If there was anyone in history you could kill, who would it be?"

Kira looked perplexed for a moment, before drawing out a scroll and unraveling it. It dropped to the floor, and rolled on, and on, and on, and on, and......well, you get the idea. It reached Uranus.

"Does it have to be _one_ person?"

"Well, I'm not sure if Velshard means it that way, but let's assume only one."

"Damn.......well.....I guess it'd be..........Mistuo Fukuda."

"Wait, what? Why him? He's the whole reason you even exist!"

"Yeah, but he so completely screwed us over. I mean, in canon, my character's a total p*ssy. Look at Heero and Setsuna: They ooze bad-assedness."

"I dispute the latter half of your statement, but otherwise, yeah. Next, is someone who hasn't even shown up yet: Muruta Azrael." The distortion of A Fourth Wall showed up again, this time showing a blond guy in a fancy-shmansy room.

"What the-"

"Muruta Azrael: Did your mommy and daddy play with you inappropriately as a child?"

"Wha- NO!"

"Well," Neb butted in, "It says here that his mother slapped him as a kid, so I suppose it's a yes."

"How did- that's not."

"Whatever, shut up and go to hell already." K'GoN snarled irritatedly at the executive, before staring at the ceiling. "Man, I hope you make a good death for him.....anyway, next is Patrick Zala." The Fourth Wall appeared again, showing a disgruntled and surprised oldish guy in a ZAFT military uniform.

"Father." Athrun said, nodding towards his rather distant parental unit.

"What the-"

"Patrick Zala: Is one reason your so pissy like Adolf Hitler because you might be a failed coordinator?" The future ZAFT Council Chairman got very red in the face, before exploding in a series of expletives seen only on R-rated television. "I'll take that as a yes."

"Next: For Mu: Can you sum up your opinion on Orb's recruitment choices without saying something potentially fatal?" Mu looked a bit nervous.

"Well....I suppose that while many of Orbs personnel, at least the ones I've seen so far.......well, they're not really normal....but they are very skilled at what they do......hehe," Mu chuckled nervously, as Kira, Liene and Jack looked at him a bit threateningly.

"I'm surprised you managed to say something that wasn't mildly insulting. Next, Kuzzey." Yet again, the Wall opened, this time right in K'GoN's face, showing a startled Kuzzey getting a drink from the Barachiel's cafeteria.

"BOO!"

"AAGHGG" the Orb native screamed, falling back on his butt and spilling his drink down the front of his pants. As the Wall closed, K'GoN cackled again.

"Professionally speaking, I should reprimand you for that Velshard, as it wasn't a question, but it was so amusing...I'll let it slide. Next up is.....me?"

Kira snatched the questions out of K'GoN's puny manipulator, and read the question aloud. "K'GoN, If you were to kill your master wouldn't that be a form of suicide? just something to keep in mind."

"Hmmm." The monster looked pensive, and opened his mouth to reply. Except that Neb interrupted.

"In a sense, yes. Because if the Author, who created and is responsible for K'GoN's continued existence as well as mine were to be killed, we would cease to be written, and only the records of ourselves in these stories would remain, like a tombstone."

"Feh. Well, I can still hurt the bastard." K'GoN grumbled, ripping the questions out of Kira's hand. "Last: Lacus."

"Yes?" The pop princess called, from the front row of the audience.

"What the-"

"I wanted to watch and see if anyone asked Kira a question about me." Lacus replied shyly.

"Well then......Lacus, Kira wants to know if you really are as sweet and innocent as you seem or if you are in reality a closet pervert?" This caused the singer to blush a red similar in shade to that of Flay's hair, as she stammered out a reply.

"I'm no pervert!" K'GoN waited. "Really, I'm not."

"Sure, whatever." K'GoN winked at her. "Anyway, that was the last questi-Gah!" A ten-ton weight of solid concrete smashed from the ceiling on top of K'GoN's chair, with words written on its back. Leaning over, the cast read out the question at the same time.

"Why do people keep calling canon Kira Jesus Yamato?" Opening the last Fourth Wall, Neb showed the Kira that everyone knew: Pure, Innocent, and supremely Optimistic. Our Kira barely managed to keep a snarl off his face, although he couldn't stop his hand from reaching for his balisong knife.

"Oh, hello!" the Real Kira said cheerfully.

"Well?" K'GoN groaned out from under the slab.

"Well, I'm not sure, but everyone tells me its because that it's because, 1: I'm pure and good, 2: I'm extremely forgiving, and 3: I was 'borne of a womb that had never known the touch of a man.' Oh, and then there was the fact about me....erm...what was the term? Oh, WTFBBQPWNing everyone in battle with my Beam-Spamming freak of a Gundam." Neb closed the Fourth Wall, just as Our Kira whipped out the balisong, throwing it into the space where Real Kira's head used to be.

K'GoN crawled out from under the slab, panting as his broken metal limbs repaired themselves, before saying:

"Well, that's all folks! But wait, we have a special surprise from the Author! A sneak peek at the next chapter of Gundam Seed: Killer's Realm!"

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Kira crept through the undergrowth, following the sound of voices. Creeping up behind a bush, he snuck a look over it, getting a glimpse of-

A gun pressed into the side of his head, forcing him down to the ground as someone kicked his legs out from under him, forcing him down to the ground.

"Oh, look at what we have here! She'll reward me greatly for this!" Kira heard, and the voice was dreadfully familiar.

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A/N: And that's that, if I do another one of these "interview" Omakes, I hope more of you send questions.

Er....I've just discovered a rather large blunder in my dates. So far, I've been labeling this as still in the month of January. And while the journey from Heliopolis to the Indian Ocean probably was slightly faster than canon because of the lack of ZAFT attacks, and that they spent about a whole day in North Africa, it still should be around February. So, I'm gonna have to go back and fix this.


	31. Phase 18: Diplomat and Killer

Gundam Seed: Killer's Realm

Phase 18: Diplomat and Killer

**Indian Ocean, Unidentified Island, Small Forest**

**February 4th, 5:34 A.M. Local, 2:34 P.M. Orb**

Moving as quietly as possible, Kira moved along the tree line, searching for a good hiding place. It was extremely unlikely that anyone would be looking for him, as the Augury had been destroyed at least a few miles from the island, and there really was no reason to believe that he survived. After all, nothing could survive direct contact with a nuclear fusion reaction......case in point, the Augury.

As he passed deeper into the forest, Kira heard....something. Moving towards the sound, at an exact right angle to his original path, he moved alongside a tree.

Kira crept through the undergrowth, following the sound of voices. Creeping up behind a bush, he snuck a look over it, getting a glimpse of-

A gun pressed into the side of his head, forcing him down to the ground as someone kicked his legs out from under him, forcing him down to the ground.

"Oh, look at what we have here! She'll thank me for this!" Kira heard, and the voice was dreadfully familiar.

"Miguel!?" The Prince of Orb grunted, trying to move out from under the rather heavy ZAFT Green Coat.

"Oh! Sorry Kira." The ace apologized, holstering his weapon. Leaning down, he made to help Kira up, gripping his hand and tugging. "I thought you might have been an OMNI soldier."

"Understandable. Why are you here?" Kira asked, brushing off his pants.

"I'm escorting ZAFT's diplomat to Orb." Miguel replied cheerfully, waving back at the camp. Walking briskly through the bush Kira had been hiding behind, he waved at the camp's occupants. Following after him, Kira blinked at the individual sitting close to the center.

"Lacus?"

"Kira!" The famous pop star exclaimed, rushing forward to greet her friend's best friend with a heartfelt hug. Kira blushed, much to the surprise of the surrounding ZAFT troops, most of whom had concluded that Kira was a heartless killer with a mask of emotions.

"What are you doing here?" Kira asked, still being squeezed.

"Oh! You don't know? I'm traveling to Orb in order to present Father's proposal." Seeing Kira's look of confusion, she explained. "Considering how much aid we've given each other, Father was figuring your government would finally agree to a countering alliance to the Earth Alliance."

Kira nodded, saying "Of course. My father has tried to keep to Orb's ideals, but I think he's being convinced."

"Really?"

"Yes. Most of his advisors, as well as me, have been pushing him to take a side in the war. I, personally, was trying to get him to go for ZAFT." Lacus' bright smile made Kira blush, slightly. Like, a half of a shade redder than normal.

"That's great!" Lacus sang, almost skipping back to her seat.

"Erm....you wouldn't mind if I traveled along with you guys to Orb? I kinda got shot down.....and I don't think anyone on the Barachiel knows I'm here." Lacus' astonished look, combined with the somewhat scared gazes of the ZAFT soldiers, made Kira feel nervous.

"Wait....someone actually shot _you_ down? You. The Destroyer of Artemis? The Killer of Krow?" Miguel choked.

"Krows not dead."

"Might as well be. Anyway, who was this guy?"

"It was a girl actually, and she had a new Gundam." There was a round of muttering as ZAFT personnel traded looks and the outer guards stiffened up, becoming more alert.

"What kind?" Miguel asked, both terrified and curious. Which proved that Mobile Suit pilots were the same everywhere.

"It was sleek, like the Kiba, and could transform into a high-speed fighter. It had several weapons, including a combined beam rifle and linear repeater, Phase-Shift knives, and wrist blades that injected nanomachines into the Augury, destroying its systems. The weapon that ultimately did me in though, was a miniature HALC that fired Nuclear Fusion rounds."

There was a sharp communal inhale amongst the pilots, who by now were sitting in a circle just behind Lacus, around Kira, like children around a story-teller.

"Damn, OMNI's making them tougher, and it hasn't even been a fucking month!" Miguel swore.

"Yeah well, Orb's gonna blow them away if that's the limit of the Alliance's progress with mobile suits." Kira said, grinning. "So how did you guys get here anyway?"

"Our flight got shot down by anti-aircraft fire over Africa, where we were supposed to get a transport from Commander Waltfeld." Miguel said.

"I thought we cleared out Africa?" Kira frowned.

"North Africa. The fire came from Victoria."

"I didn't think OMNI had any anti-aircraft guns that could fire that far."

"Well, they do now."

"How are you getting out of here?"

"By submarine, the Z.N.S Tharsis Montes." Kira started at that.

"Commander Baryx's ship?"

"You know him?"

"He was in the battle where I got shot down." That got the entire circle jabbering, swarming Kira and asking questions about their idol, Mark Baryx. There were also quite a few question for him, ranging from how long he's trained for mobile suit piloting (1,900 hours logged in the simulator) to what he's gonna pilot next (top-secret).

After the mob dissipated, Miguel shooing them to go do stuff in preparation for the approaching transfer to the sub, Kira sat down on the ground next to Lacus, resting his legs (and mouth).

"So how is everyone?" Lacus asked, leaning back to face him directly.

"Well, all things considered, fine. I mean, after the Augury was destroyed, Jack in the Kiba ripped the cannon off of the Gundam, so that couldn't have done any harm. And considering that we have an entire team of Gundams on the Barachiel, no Constantine or Megalodon will do it in." Kira said, laying back and, for once since the entire war started, relaxed. They were on an island that measured all of two square kilometers in the middle of the Indian Ocean! There was no way any Alliance soldiers would find them here.

A sharp _crack_ split the air, preceding the literal explosion of one of the guards head, causing the rest of the group to scatter, Miguel and about five other ZAFT troops circling Kira and Lacus as they rushed off into the forest, the sounds of rifle fire echoing. A soldier popped out from behind a tree, bringing his assault rifle to aim at them.

Acting as quick as only he could, Kira drew his knife, flipped it open, and threw it at the soldier's head, sinking the blade ten centimeters into his forehead. At a full run, the group passed the corpse, Kira plucking his knife out of its head and the rifle from its grip, passing the weapon to Miguel while he held his knife at the ready. Another two soldiers raced into view, trying to get a good aim through the trees. A fusillade of bullets, aimed by the far faster and more accurate Coordinators, cut them down quickly.

"What the hell!?" Kira shouted as they resumed their fast and frantic dash towards the island's beach.

"I guess they tracked us!" Miguel shouted back, slightly annoyed.

As the group got past the last few trees onto the beach, they stopped for a second to catch their breath, and then looked up.

And saw a Constantine staring at them, the camera's at each end of the cruciform visor focused directly on Lacus. The armor on the sides of its head lifted up, revealing two large 85mm guns, swiveling slightly to aim directly at the group.

Then a couple of dark yellow and blue beams struck the Constantine from the side, smashing it to pieces and scattering them along the beach. Turning, the group of Coordinators saw the Isurus lifting itself onto the beach by its arms, before walking up to them and setting its feet onto the ground. The cockpit opened, out climbing Mark Baryx in his body armor-like pilot suit and do-rag. From a pod on the Isurus' back dropped nine ZAFT soldiers, fully armed and fanning out along the beach, setting up a perimeter.

Out of the sea came SIMCA's, also equipped with personnel pods, crouching on the beach to allow soldiers to disembark and spread throughout the island. The chatter of gunfire intensified, as the ZAFT troops added their own rifles to the mix.

"Looks like you landed yourself into quite the situation." Baryx commented to Kira gruffly, watching as the survivors from the diplomatic guard began trickling out from the forest, more often than not being carried by soldiers. "Well, I suppose you're coming along for the ride."

"Of course!" Lacus chirped happily. Baryx cocked an eyebrow at Kira, who responded with a slightly sheepish look.

"Well, just climb in the pod and I'll take you guys to the Tharsis." Nodding, Miguel ordered the five guards into a circle formation around Lacus and Kira, taking the lead. Once inside the pod, they found that, despite being made for nine armed and armored soldiers, it was still somewhat.....cramped.

The soldiers in question must be related to sardines.

In this case, the guards were all crammed shoulder to shoulder with Miguel in front, while in the middle, their backs forced Lacus and Kira together, chest-to-chest. Which was not actually all that uncomfortable for Kira. So long as he didn't think too much about how Lacus felt against him......yep, now it's getting uncomfortable.

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**Approximately one hour, thirty-two minutes later**

**Indian Ocean, Z.N.S Tharsis Montes, MS Hanger  
**

The group climbed out of the pod, Miguel and the guards taking a look around to make sure it was a ZAFT ship while Lacus and Kira tried to stop blushing. Coming around the catwalk, Baryx clapped Kira on the shoulders, almost causing the teen to collapse.

"Welcome to the Tharsis Montes Miss Clyne. And you too, Mister Yamato. I gotta ask: how did you survive that explosion?" rubbing his shoulder, Kira responded:

"I climbed out of the cockpit before the Fusion shell went off. Still got a sunburn from it though." Twisting, Kira showed all assembled the horrid-looking red burn covering his entire back.

"Damn! Doesn't that hurt?" Miguel asked, wincing as he tried to approximate the pain a burn like that would cause.

"Yes."

"Hey Dad, did you get-" This from a rather muscular teen wearing a ZAFT Red pilot suit with dark brown hair and brown eyes, which widened upon seeing Kira. "Holy shit! You're Kira Yamato!" In no time flat, he dashed over to Kira, stopping in front of him to jabber.

Before Kira could get anywhere near understanding the flood of excited words pouring from the pilot's house, Baryx yanked the Red next to him.

"Gary! What have I told you about doing that?" He hissed, clenching the Red by the shoulder. This caused Gary to pause for a moment.

"Not to?"

"Exactly! Now introduce yourself properly." With that, Gary came to attention, turned sharply on his heel, and saluted.

"Gary Baryx, SIMCA pilot!" He snapped out, standing straight as though his father had shoved a sniper rifle up his ass. Lacus, Kira, Miguel, and the five guards alternated their gazes between Gary and Mark, studying them. Both had dark brown hair and eyes, were built tall, muscular, and of average width (although Mark's armor/pilot suit made him appear quite bulky).

"Yeah, he's my dad." Gary said, nodding towards Mark. Kira's stare switched again to Mark.

"But....you're only twenty-five!" he stammered.

"Forty-three, actually." Mark said. "You haven't spent too much time around other Coordinators, have you?"

Kira thought for a second, tallying. "Yes, actually, I have."

"How many adults?"

"Er....."

"Exactly. It doesn't really show up until around thirty years or so, but Coordinators don't really age the same as Naturals."

_Huh. I wonder what that means for me then...._ Kira pondered, following as the group headed for the bridge. as they passed through the remarkably cramped corridors, Kira kept track of all he saw. An ally ZAFT may be, but Kira didn't really trust anyone.

Well, his family certainly. And Athrun. Jack. Liene. Ok, he trusted a lot of people, but he wasn't naive.

Arriving at the bridge, the majority of the group stayed behind, allowing Lacus, Kira, Mark, and Gary to proceed. Ducking under the bulkhead, Kira commented on the lighting, which was bright and white.

"Oh yeah, its bright now, but you out to see it in combat!" Gary chortled. "Then we switch to a low-power red lighting in order to preserve power and also lower our sound profile."

At that moment, the lights changed to red, causing everything to look darker.

"Hey, look at that. Something must be happening."

"Attention all crew! Megalodon school approaching at high speed. Prepare for combat!"

Mark swore. "Damn it! Most of our SIMCAs are on that island cleaning out the OMNI troops. Should've guessed they had a carrier around here."

"What's the problem? Just use your Isurus to deal with them." Kira said.

"We could, but while we're occupied with some of the Megalodons, the rest would attack the Tharsis."

"Well, let me go!"

"We only have one Isurus and Gary's SIMCA, the rest are WAAMs."

"Let me take a WAAMs then."

"Are you nuts? You'd be ripped apart by the Megalodons."

"You think so?" Mark glared at Kira.

"Fine. It's your funeral. Take the first WAAM on the right, we already equipped it with a rifle." Nodding, Kira dashed off back towards the hanger.

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**Indian Ocean, depth of 430 Meters**

**One minute later**

"Alright, ready Kira?" Gary called over the radio, covering the WAAM with his SIMCA.

"I'm fine Gary. You don't need to watch over me."

"But the WAAM-"

"Your engineers have maintained it well, correct?"

"Well, yeah, but-"

"Then I'll do fine. Just watch out for yourself. The Megalodons are fragile, but they're quick, and that water cutter of theirs is no joke."

Just then, they detected the Megalodons on their own sensors, turning in the water to face the school of about 45 armors.

"Jeez. how do they fit so many on a single carrier?" Gary muttered, still astonished at how many Megalodons appear at one time.

"I'm guessing that they stack them like crates, and use Constantines to take them out of the holds for the pilots before kicking them overboard." Kira suggested, causing a short ripple of laughter amongst those listening.

The talk ceased when Baryx dashed his Isurus forward, causing Gary to squawk and follow him in his SIMCA. Staying well behind them, Kira followed in his borrowed WAAM, targeting one of the Megalodons on the outer part of the formation with his combined phonon maser/torpedo rifle.

Baryx fired the first two shots, the Baryon Burst Fire Cannons in his Isurus' hands firing bolts into two Megalodons, smashing them to bits for the immense water pressure to crush. Gary followed, launching four torpedos from his shoulder launchers, causing the Megalodons to scatter, attempting to break the sonar lock. At that moment, Kira made his move, shooting his target with a quick blast, before launching a trio of torpedos from the launcher on his WAAM's right arm. The Megalodons scattered further, before recognizing the WAAM as one of their preferred targets and dashing forward to kill it.

The Isurus and SIMCA intercepted them, high-energy beam claws and sonic claws tearing into a total of six mobile armors. A group of five Megalodons fired off their own torpedos, all charging towards the two high mobility suits engaged in close combat with them.

On Kira's side, Megalodons swarmed towards him, launching torpedoes and aiming water cutters. Miraculously, Kira dodged what torpedoes he couldn't shoot, before launching the rest of his torpedoes, destroying a good number of his assailants. However, now the rest had reached water cutter range. Staying away from their noses, Kira managed to survive the invisible assault of water, losing only his WAAM's left hand and the tip of its right foot. He managed to shoot five of the Megalodons, destroying two, disabling ones hydro-ramjet, and severely damaging two more, leaving them to be crushed by the pressure. Descending rather slowly, Kira barely managed to avoid many of the surviving armor's attacks.

Dealing with the other half of the school, both Baryxs gaped at how long Kira was holding out. Entire groups of WAAMs had been slaughtered in positions similar to his, and yet the Prince of Orb managed to survive! Still, his position wasn't exactly stellar. A blast of the back Baryon Cannons cleared a large opening in the swarming mobile armors, allowing Gary's SIMCA to get through, disemboweling three Megalodons as he moved to assist the WAAM. The last of Gary's torpedoes drew the attention of the group assailing the ZAMS-refit, destroying four and forcing some of them away from it.

The distracted Megalodons were rapidly dealt with, as they tried to deal with both the SIMCA and WAAM, one dashing among them, cutting them to pieces while the other assailed them from a distance. Soon enough though, they managed to at least incapacitate one, a group sacrificing themselves to sever the WAAM's rifle arm.

Which did them no good whatsoever, as the elder Baryx finished his targets and joined his son in finishing the school.

"Damn. When did you get so good in a WAAM?"

"Simulator practice. A lot of Morgenroete test pilots trained on simulators loaded with data on various ZAFT mobile suits."

"Ah."

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**Indian Ocean, Near Orb, Barachiel**

**4:07 A.M.**

"Captain! Contact on the sonar!" Jackie called, startling much of the bridge crew.

"Damn. Any indication as to who it is?" Murrue swore, tensing up.

"No idea, but it's moving fast! It'll be below us in thirty seconds."

At that moment, the contact surfaced......and further, leaping into the air with a somersault to land directly on the deck in front of the bridge, in all its shining silvery glory.

"Jack Kagizaki, reporting for duty!" the radio sputtered, the Kiba doing a salute.

"........."

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A/N: A very belated update. We're getting closer to the Big Battle of Orb, which Velly and me have been working hard on. Still got JOSH-A to go through, as well as the Mobile Suit and Gundam reveals.

On different note, The first time Kira ever pilots a ZAFT mobile suit!

("Technically speaking, both the Freedom and Strike Freedom were ZAFT suits.)

.......The first time Kira ever pilots a **cannon fodder** ZAFT mobile suite!

("What next, Setsuna piloting an Ahead? Amuro piloting a Zaku I? Suzaku piloting a Burai?")

Ah, shut up.

G. Wagers: There you go boy, story, with a guarantee for no filler for a while.

Oh yeah, on last thing: There's a small, teensy, _**minuscule**_ chance that I may update my Code Geass fic for the first time in...... er.....when K'GoN?

("When you published it, February 9th.)

Oh yeah. Anyway, small chance, but possible.

Knightmare Gundam of Ni


	32. PseudoPhase

Gundam Seed: Killer's Realm  
Pseudo-Phase: The Battle of Antarctica

**Two Days Ago, February 2nd, 71 C.E.**

**6:10 AM Local Time**

"So, everyone clear on the plan?" Commander Richards asked his men, all just-out-of-training Reds in ZONGS. A chorus of affirmatives answered him, each and every single one a lie. Richards knew this because he himself wasn't exactly sure of the plan. Their orders were pretty much as followed: "Go Here and Kill Everything not ZAFT." Where _here_ was was wherever the hell their Laurasia-Class, the Z.S.S Vaalbara, was dropping them. About the only clear part was the 'Kill Everything'.

There was, however, a bit of a clue in the special lubricant coatings applied to their Mobile Suits, made specifically for ice-laden environments.

It was only until after the drop pod split apart, about ten minutes later, that Richards got it. A pure white vista greeted his eyes, relayed by the monoeye camera of his ZONGS. When he altered the angle of his ZONGS head, he saw the reflections of the dozens of ZONGS and terrestrial-fit ZAMS in the kilometers-wide solar panels of the Alliance's energy facility.

Since the April Fool's Crisis, where ZAFT had dropped hundreds of Neutron Jammers, thus denying the Earth Alliance use of its numerous nuclear fission reactors, the Alliance had been primarily reliant on two facilities for energy: The Polar Photoelectronic Transfer Bases. There were exactly two, one at each pole, providing year-round photonically-derived energy to the Alliance cities in northern and southern hemispheres. They were holdovers from the time before the Reconstruction War, old technology that had been phased out in favor of the new Generation Six nuclear fission hyper-reactors.

If ZAFT could take one of them out, they could shut down half or more of the Alliance's facilities: mobile weapons factories, air-defense systems, terrestrial-spatial communications relays......Of course, there was the small matter of the battalion or so of OMNI Enforcer mobile suits.

Richards flinched when a sniper round hit one of his team. Below he could see many more Constantines, OMNI's mass-production mobile suit, aiming weapons, above. A second later, hails of bullets crossed in both directions, as both sides attempted to completely destroy the other. Richards' ZONGS was nicked a few times, one of the shots hitting the shoulder and severing its left arm. Calmly, he raised his ZONGS' machine gun and fired a burst, hitting a Constantine in the chest and feeling a slight glimmer of satisfaction when it fell, nothing left of its cockpit section but a large gaping hole.

Before he knew it, his team landed, crunching photosensitive polymers and ceramics under their suits' feet as they rushed towards their immediate enemies, a team of Constantines. As the OMNI units raised their weapons, one of Richards' team members, Ann, fired off a series of rounds from her sniper rifle, expertly blasting each Constantine in the cockpit. Even as they fell though, another dozen or so of the Natural's mobile suits rushed up, this time with grenade launchers attached to their rifles.

Richards swore when Ann was hit head-on by a salvo of grenades. Say what you will about their common sense, OMNI's troops weren't dumb enough to ignore a sniper. Even before the remains of Ann's ZONGS toppled to the ground, the remaining three members of the team were rushing around the Constantine squad, barely surviving the linear rounds and high-explosive grenades that were fired their way.

"Need some help?" Richards yelped when a barrage of machine gun fire streaked past either side of his ZONGS, in between his two remaining team mates and shredding the Constantines to bits. Turning, and manipulating his ZONGS' camera a bit, he saw a team of ZONGS led by a SCAU trotting up to him, firing off a burst every now and then. "How's it been?" Derrik. It had to be Derrik.

"The usual. Lose two team-mates, get shredded a bit by retarded-ass Naturals, get 'helped'." Richards snarled back, before turning his attention to one of the few Constantines that had survived Derrick's assault. A burst of fire into the cockpit took care of it before Richards ordered his team to move up. They were starting to fall behind the main force.

"Nice way to thank someone." Derrick muttered. his team trailing after.

"Yeah, well, I trust you at my back about as much as I'd trust Rau Le Creuset." Richards growled. sweeping the area for any more OMNI units.

"I still don't get why you don't trust him. Le Creuset is a hero! And the best pilot in the entire mobile suit division! Not to mention a canny commander."

"That's just it. He's so good, but no one knows anything about him. No parents, no birth date, age, hell, no one even knows what his face looks like!" Richards muttered, taking out a single Constantine charging for them with a burst of machine gun fire across its legs before Derrick finished it off himself.

"Damn it's cold out here!" the SCAU pilot moaned, and Richards could almost see the Caucasian Coordinator shudder in his pilot suit. He rolled his eyes. Cold Antarcitca may be, it wasn't cold enough to touch on space. Fortunately, ZAFT's mobile suits were very well fit for cold temperatures, any complications offered by the ice and humidity being eliminated or reduced by slight modifications and coating additions. Unfortunately, OMNI had the same things on their Constantines.

"Hoy, what's that?"

'That' was a Constantine-looking mobile suit, except instead of the weird crucifix-like camera it had a visor-like camera strip and was missing the extended pauldron. Also, instead of the uniformly light coloring of the Constantines, it was colored primarily a dark gray-blue color with a platinum secondary on the edges of the visor and the joints.

"Meh, it's just another one of their suckish mobile suits." Derrick snorted, advancing his SCAU to deal with it.

Out of nowhere, another one of the strange new mobile suits attacked, an enormous anti-ship sword swinging at the SCAU. Derrick didn't even have a chance to scream before the blade cut him in half. Richards swore, turning his ZONGS around.

"Everyone, fall back! It's a tr-" He ceased his order, instead letting his jaw gape at the scene that was behind his team.

A horde of Constantines swarmed behind them, eviscerating the ZONGS, ZAMS, and SCAUs that had been fighting.

"What the hell!" Richards cried, backpedaling his ZONGS.

Only to slam into the new mobile suit. Quickly, Richards spun his ZONGS around, trying to aim his machine gun. He didn't make it, the strange dark machine grabbing his ZONGS arm and lifting the entire seventy-four and a half metric tons of mecha up into the air. The OMNI suit studied the ZAFT unit for a few seconds, its camera strip taking in all the details. Then the mech raised its other arm, aiming its linear assault rifle.

A few seconds later, Richards' ZONGS fell to the ground with a tattered hole blasted through its entire torso, as the other OMNI units fell on the two remaining ZAFT troops.

000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 -- Quis est a Iuguolo nisi a Iuguolo? – 00000000000000000000000000000000000000

**Two Hours Later**

Inside his Strategos, Watcher pilot Major John Thatcher observed as the cannon-fodder Constantines continued to clear the area of the dilapidated wrecks of both ZAFT's mecha and those of the unlucky bastards who hadn't been able to scramble out of the way.

"It's a good thing we were here to get our Strategos, eh sir?" Turning his suit's camera around, John glanced at the slate and emerald Strategos of his Second-In-Command, Captain Brad Penn.

"Too true. If we hadn't been here, ZAFT would've slaughtered the guards and taken out the energy station." John replied "Anyway, how's your Strategos working out?"

"Very well sir. The joints move smoothly, and the sword is very effective." Brad had spent most of the fight dashing in and out of combat, using the extra thrusters of his Strategos' Cavalier pack to wage a pseudo-guerrilla combat. He'd already made double-ace, with six ZAMS, three ZONGS, and two SCAUs set to be painted on his Strategos' head.

"Good. Cause we've got a major battle coming up." John said, starting to move his Strategos towards the aircraft hangers, where awaited their 'Stork' VTOL carriers.

"Where, sir?"

"Orb"

000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 -- Quis est a Iuguolo nisi a Iuguolo? – 00000000000000000000000000000000000000

A/N: ("Gaze upon me in fear fools! I, K'GoN, have finally managed to kill that pompous bastard who calls himself an author! Now, bow before my indomitable might, and-")

_(__"Er, K'GoN?")_

("What, Neb!!!?")

_("Look behind you.")_

("Why, what's behi-Gah!")

Yo.

("How are you still alive? You were hit in the chest at point-blank range by an eight-gauge shotgun! It took hours to set that trap up, between setting the shotgun at chest height, and stringing the tripwire in front of your door!")

Plot armor.

(".....Plot Armor.")

Yep

("I thought that was when a character avoids death by an unlikely means in order for the plot to advance.")

Well, considering that I **make** the plot, wouldn't I have the best plot armor?

("Damn you and your literary logic!")

Anyway, sorry for the long absence guys. School hasn't been getting any easier, and video games are very distracting. By the way, having infinite ammo for a magnum in Resident Evil 5 rocks.

("Lazy asshole")

Quiet you, before I rearrange your quantum nervous system. And you know what happened the last time I did that......

("Gulp")

Knightmare Gundam of Ni


	33. Phase 19: Meetings

Gundam Seed: Killer's Realm

Phase 19: Meetings

**Just outside of Orb **

**February 5, 71 C.E., 11:37 A.M.**

The Barachiel crew was silent as they made their approach to Orb's territorial waters. Despite the return of Jack, they had still lost Kira. And Jack's return hadn't actually made anything much better. In his escape from the Grigori, the Kiba had gotten 'nicked' by its Inferno Positron Cannon in the left arm. Which meant practically the entire left side of the Gundam was just _gone_. If it weren't for the Barachiel's nano-lathing facilities, they wouldn't have had a snowball's chance in hell of getting the silver Gundam repaired anytime before fall. Even with the nano-factories, it would've taken a month.

Yet, when the same fact was mentioned (tentatively) to both Liene and Jack, the two high-ranking Orbites just shrugged, saying that it was just as well it had happened when it did. When pressed for details, Liene had muttered something about 'not needing the Kiba at this point'. Then he'd walked off, saying that the Orb welcoming committee/escort would show when they reached the edge of Orb's territory.

The bridge crew, plus Mu, Liene and Jack, were looking outside, searching for the well-known (and feared) Aegis-class cruisers and Kuraokami-class destroyers. Despite the comparatively small size of the naval warships, and their comparatively minuscule armaments, Orb had by now acquired a reputation for unorthodox weaponry and tactics among the Barachiel crew.

Then....

"Captain! Large submerged contact on the sonar!" Jackie called out, causing both Murrue and Natarle to look.

"Depth, size, anything?" Murrue barked, demanding answers.

"Er, 300 meters and rising rapidly at a rate of 20 meters per second......size.....over 800 meters!" Everyone's jaws literally dropped, when, not ten seconds later, an enormous, hulking mass of metal almost literally blasted up from underwater, before the whole thing settled. The submersible was 135 meters above sea level at the top of its conning tower, and seemed to have enough mass to make _two_ Celestial-Classes.

"Barachiel, do you read me?" Murrue didn't seem to hear. Then she started, and grabbed the phone, her hand shaking as she brought it up to her ear.

"Who is this?"

"Rear Admiral Kei Todoka." Liene stepped up next to Murrue and tapped her on the shoulder. When she looked, he motioned for the phone. When he had it, he started speaking.

"Admiral Todoka, this is Liene Van Dalygon, Morgenroete Identification Number TK-421X, contracted clearance to level Zulu-Zulu-November-Seven. Comply."

"......Confirmed. SSFCN-601 Mutio will escort the Barachiel to the military port at Onogoro Island." Liene handed the phone back to Murrue, who put it down, as the Mutio submerged again, returning to a depth of 450 meters.

"What was all that about?" Mu asked.

"TK-421X is the MIN assigned to me as an employee of Morgenroete. I suspect that Todoka is now contacting Morgenroete to have them change my number now, seeing as how I spoke it in front of all of you. Zulu-Zulu-November-Seven, on the other hand, is the old NATO Phonetic Alphabet version of the 15th highest classification level in standard Orb Military procedures, ZZN-7, two levels above the minimum required to know about the Mutio. If I had not repeated those two sets of information, the Mutio was under orders to immediately sink the Barachiel and pick through the wreckage later."

"Oh."

"The Barachiel is also classified, but under the Special Forces procedures, which uses an entirely different system. Under that system, the minimum level to know about the Barachiel is Bravo-Kilo-Two-Zero-One, or, BK-201."

There was a nervous silence in the bridge. The Barachiel already had a special classification?

"Anything related to the G Project is classified to that basic level. Now, if you excuse me, I have to go change."

Everyone watched as Liene walked out the bridge door and into the hallway, turning right towards his quarters. Everyone, that is, except Jack, who was looking sternly out the viewport until the bridge door closed. Then he started chortling.

- Quis est a Iuguolo nisi a Iuguolo? -

Liene wanted to kill someone.

Now, normally, he was pretty calm. So calm in fact, that most people were somewhat scared of him. Now though, the sheer force of his fury caused many of the people he passed in the hall to scurry away, looks of great terror on their face. The only person who did not react so was the one he was looking for, and found, in the cafeteria: Jack.

"Jack, why did you spray-paint my best clothing lime green?" Indeed, Liene's suit, a middle-class looking suit, was stained in a very fluorescent green, almost painful to see.

"Cause, with Kira gone right now, there's a decreased chance of painful retribution. Or, at least, a chance of decreased pain during retribution." Jack replied cheerfully, munching quite contently on an apple. Liene flinched a little as flecks of fruit were sprayed in his direction by the uncouth pilot.

"You shouldn't speak so cavalierly about Kira."

"Oh come on, he's not dead."

"No one could have survived that fusion projectile." Jack sat up at this and looked Liene in the eye.

"Remember when Kira got sent to the hospital, 'cause his leg got broken?" Liene nodded hesitantly. "And the whole wing where he was got blown up by a Blue Cosmos bomb? Then, when the search teams combed the entire site, they found him, not only alive, but having rescued five patients, two nurses and a doctor. Oh, and he helped deliver two babies. If he can pull _that_ off, then I'm pretty sure that he can easily get away from a nuclear fusion reaction going off inside his own mobile suit. Especially with that nice auto-eject system he programmed"

"But the probability-"

"Is shit. Yeah, I know. But Kira's very existence defies probability. Or have you forgotten?" Jack looked meaningfully at Liene, who conceded the point, nodding.

"True. But, I still have to get you back for the paint." Liene said, the merest shadow of a grin crossing his face. Then he pulled a taser out of his sleeve and hit Jack in the neck. The effect was.... amusing, to say the least. "Oh, and I have some good news: Karl's meeting us at the dock." Jack's expression painfully turned into something approximating a grin, although it was hard to tell with all the twitching. "And so's Andrew." The grin lessened somewhat.

- Quis est a Iuguolo nisi a Iuguolo? -

**Orb, Onogoro, Secret Morgenroete Port  
****15 minutes later**

Still shaking off the effects of the tazer, Jack sprinted down the corridor to the airlock, to which the workers outside were attaching the boarding ramp. Upon reaching his destination, he skidded to a halt, managing to stop before he slammed into Rau Le Creuset.

"Man it feels good to be home!" The pilot grinned, noticing his former classmates out of the corner of his eye. All of them, Tolle, Miriallia, Kuzzey (truth be told, Kuzzey wasn't surprising in this respect) were slowly backing back into the hall they were coming from. Facing them and stepping forward, he spread his arms out wide, as though to embrace them. "Aw, come on guys, I'm still the same Jack you know.....You just know more about me now." Needless to say, they weren't taking it.

"Yeesh Twinky, more psychologically scarred people? We can't keep paying for your mistakes...." The voice came from the airlock, and upon turning, everyone saw Lord Uzumi Nara Athha escorted by two people.

One was a tall man with long light gray shoulder-length hair parted down the middle, red eyes, an entirely cybernetic right arm, and a very scary....._feeling_, so to speak. His features were gaunt and hawkish, lending more force to the scary feeling, and he carried what looked like a katana. He was also dressed in an Orb uniform that was very, very neat and tidy, with two silver Major-General's stars pinned as rank and a host of ribbons, medals, and other such military decorations.

The other was almost as tall, with short strawberry blond hair combed back and grayish green or hazel eyes. He had two scars, one going from the corner of his left eye to his earlobe, the other starting at his right cheek, going along his jaw, before disappearing along the shoulder of his shirt. He too was dressed in uniform, although he just a major rank, and a few less decorations.

It was the second man who had spoken, grinning in Jack's direction. The two walked lazily up to each other and started their usual greetings.

"Nice to see you Mr. Hurts!" Jack said, grinning and slapping the man on the back.

"Ditto to you, Twinky!" The man said back, laying Jack low with a reciprocal slap. A low cough from the general caused the two to back away respectfully, albeit with somewhat mocking expressions.

Uzumi smiled at the two before turning back to the main group from the Barachiel, which was Murrue, Mu, the refugees, Liene and the ZAFT pilots. "You all know me already. However, I'd like you to meet these two: Major-General Andrew Victor Payne, and Major Karlton William Hertz." The two behind him responded appropriately, with Andrew giving a brief salute while Karl just waved.

Most of the former OMNI officers had to stop themselves from quivering. Andrew Victor Payne, not to be confused with Waldtfeld, was one of the more notorious individuals in military circles. For one, he was the commander of Orb's Special Operations Division. For another, he was efficiently brutal in dealing with enemies. Of which he used to have many.

Karl, on the other hand, was just as notorious, but in a more direct sense. OMNI intelligence judged him to have personally dismembered several dozen high-ranking officers in several militaries. Not that they could directly tie him to them.

More frightening was the fact that they apparently knew and liked Jack.

"Welcome to Orb, ladies and gentlemen." Payne said, somewhat stiffly, his red eyes scanning over everyone several times before stopping to rest on Jack. "In your case, welcome back......Jack." At this, Jack leaped up and hugged Andrew.

"Nice to be back VP!" Payne's look changed slightly, and he sighed, before jabbing the teen in the stomach with the katana, before facing Cagalli.

"Welcome back Miss Athha." For a second, he studied Athrun, eyes seeming to bore deep into the Coordinator's soul before turning away to greet Liene. Cagalli glanced mockingly at Athrun as he exhaled, relieved that the demon wasn't looking his way anymore.

Off to the side, Karl was conversing with Mu. From what small scraps of the conversation Jack could hear, they were mainly trading stories about their respective military service and some lewd jokes.

"So you took out an entire ZAMS squad by yourself?" Karl asked, incredulous.

"Yep. Wasn't too hard. That AMBAC system gets them a lot of maneuverability, but the Moebius Zero has the edge in speed and firepower. And the Shadowfax was much, much better than the Moebius Zero." Mu explained, demonstrating with various sweeping hand motions.

"Wait, I thought you had a mobile suit?"

"No. I had the Shadowfax, and that's really all I needed."

"Hm. Well, you're gonna want one after you see ours!" Karl exclaimed, grinning in a manner that reminded Mu of Chimamare.

"Major Hertz!" The calm, but forceful reprimand was shot across the room at Karl by Andrew, who was staring very hard at Karl, who chuckled a bit.

"Yeah, Andrew's really uptight, doesn't want me talking about the Tetsujins." At this point, Andrew had walked over in front of the two, with Mu trying to scoot out from under Karl's arm and away. "But they're really cool, we'll show you-"

"Major Hertz, may I remind you that, while they seem to have defected to Orb, their actual loyalties are still suspect." Andrew said, his tone shifting ever so slightly that most of those present missed it.

"I can vouch for them Andrew." Cagalli said sternly, staring the General in the eye. Athrun backed away from her when Andrew returned the glare, staring the Orb Princess down.

"Well, that's all three of the Royal Family." Uzumi said, bemused.

"Three?" The majority of the Barachiel crew chorused.

"Well, there's me, Cagalli, and Father." A familiar voice said. Uzumi stepped aside to reveal, there, standing in the hatch: Kira.

"Kira!" Cagalli shouted, jumping onto and hugging her brother. Everyone from the Barachiel started crowding them, hugging Kira, shaking his hand, and all the other things one does when a friend thought dead came back.

"I told you he was alive!" Jack crowed, punching Liene in the shoulder. This earned him a somewhat crossed look, which he ignored, instead going to slap Kira on the back. "So, how did you get here before us?" Kira grinned.

"I hitched a ride on a ZAFT sub."

They stared blankly at him, unbelieving.

"It's true, he did." A girl's voice said, causing the Barachiel crews' heads to whip around to stare down the ramp. At Lacus Clyne. Jack snuck a sly look at Kira, which was returned with a thrown pebble, apparently saved by the Coordinator for just that. Said pebble was thrown with enough force to cause the schizophrenic pilot to swear under his breath and rub furiously at the impact point on the forehead. "He also managed to save the Tharsis Montes from a Megalodon school."

"In what?" Jack started, staring quizzically at the Prince.

"I believe he piloted one of the WAAM assigned to the Tharsis." That elicited a respectful wink from Mu, an incredulous look from Jack, and a studious glance from Liene.

"Hmm. Well, let's get off the Barachiel." Andrew interjected. "We have something we want to show you before we start the diplomatic talks with ZAFT." The General led the procession of engineers, pilots, and high-ranking politicians down the boarding ramp, onto the docks and towards some vehicles that looked as though they were meant to withstand Constantine assault rifle rounds.

Around the vehicles were five of what the former OMNI troops would swear were robots, with thick armor plating and skull-like heads that grinned viciously at them. The leader, a machine with a strange cape draped around its shoulders, strode up to them, stopping directly in front of Kira. Those not in the know, including the mechanics, Mu, and the bridge crew, shivered slightly as the 2 and one-third meters tall robot stood silently in front of Kira.

Then, to their surprise, the mechanical man hugged Kira.

"How you doing Kira? It's been a while since we last saw each other." The machine said, its slightly modulated voice emitting from the jaws of the skull.

"Heh. I suppose it has, Sergeant Shimizu." That got the former OMNI personnel staring.

"Hoy, its _Captain_ Shimizu now." Then Shimizu reached up, and unlocked his helmet from his armor, revealing a tanned Asian face with dark brown hair and two glowing green cybernetic eyes, causing Mu and the rest to feel both slightly embarrassed and chillingly freaked out. Then the Captain grinned and pivoted to face them full-on.

"Captain Gary Shimizu, Special Operations and Intelligence under Major Hertz and Major-General Payne." He stated proudly, saluting the entire assembly of commanding officers and high-ranking politicians, of which Kira, Jack, Karl, Andrew, Murrue and Mu returned.

"Hey...." Mu muttered, coming to a realization. "You're that former Sergeant that tried to teach Kira how to shoot a gun, right?"

"Biggest mistake of my life." Gary said, straight-faced and serious. "I suppose you tried too?"

"No, Jack stopped me."

"Good." Gary shot a dark look at Kira before placing his helmet back firmly on his head and marching off to join what was presumably his Special Operations team. The native Orbites followed, and after collecting their wits, so did the Barachiel crew.

- Quis est a Iuguolo nisi a Iuguolo? -

**Joint Supreme Headquarters - Alaska (JOSH-A), Docks, _Grigori_  
**

_Everything is getting set up for the 'big-time', as Sariel would say. _Edward thought coldly, sitting at his desk in his quarters on the Grigori. Before him, the door slid open as two teenagers dressed in OMNI Enforcer uniforms walked through, backs ramrod straight and expressions forcibly neutral.

_Ensign Wesley Mercis, joined for vengeance on ZAFT for the death of his mother, a former colony engineer who was killed by some of Patrick Zala's supporters. Conversely, he is Anti-Blue Cosmos in beliefs._  
_And Ensign Michael Archer, BCPU research subject, former juvenile delinquent, joined for, quote-unquote 'fun'_.  
_Not the kind of people you'd think would be piloting former G Project mobile suits, considering Yamato and Zala's psyche profiles._

"Gentlemen." Abaddon began calmly. "You have been assigned to the Watchers Special Operations Group. Do you know why?"

"Sir." Mercis, the one on the left, with short, white-lined black spiky hair said. "Because we have shown exceptional skill in piloting our respective G-Project mobile suits, sir." Edward noticed Archer, the one with wild dark blond hair, roll his eyes at his comrades polite reply. He decided to let it slide. After all, Operation Retribution would start in only five weeks, and he doubted the ensign would be able to pilot his G-Unit with only one arm.

"That's correct. You'll be working with our own G-Unit pilots, including myself and Commander Abaddon. I would suggest you stay clear of the BCPUs. They're rather..... unstable." Abaddon noted, speaking the last word with a slight tone of disgust in his voice.

Then the door opened again, letting in John Thatcher, still in his pilot suit.

"Sir, Major John Thatcher, Strategos Team Commander, reporting for duty, sir!" The Army officer snapped to a crisp salute. Abaddon glanced at him.

"At ease." Thatcher relaxed, dropped his helmet on the coffee table in the middle of the room, next to which the two ensigns stood, and slumped down in the couch along the wall. "It's nice to see you again Edward. It's been....two, three....five years, hasn't it?"

"Yes, well if you'd joined the Space arm of OMNI like I did, then we would've been in constant contact." Edward shot back.

"I'd have killed you within a week." John mused humorously. The two ensigns glanced at each other nervously.

**Later**

Edward's slight grin faded completely as the last of his three visitors exited his quarters, the door sliding silently shut. Then he reached down into one of the drawers and pulled out a file, flipping through it until he reached two specific documents.

**OMNI Enforcer Intelligence Profiles**

Name: Kira Yamato-Athha

Date of Birth: May 18, 55 CE

Age: 16

Height: 165 centimeters

Weight: 53 Kilograms

Blood Type: A

Nationality: Orb Union

Position: Prince of Orb

Known Relations: Caridad Yamato (Deceased Mother)  
Haruma Yamato (Deceased Father)  
Uzumi Nara Athha (Adoptive Father)  
Cagalli Yula Athha (Twin Sister)

Genetic Type: Coordinator (Ultimate?)

Psychological Profile: Very slight sociopath, Slight Paranoia

Political Leaning: Anti-Blue Cosmos

History: Yamato has no 'official' history beyond his adoption by Uzumi Nara Athha after the Battle of Ptolemaios. However, OMNI Intelligence suspects that Yamato is a former subject of Doctor Hibiki's 'Ultimate Coordinator' experiments, perhaps even his son, although no records obtained from the Lagrange 4 facilities confirm or deny this. Also, according to Vice-Admiral Edward Abaddon, Yamato is apparently responsible for the death of Admiral J. Abaddon, although this claim is rather unlikely, considering Yamato was perhaps 10 at the time.  
To this point, Yamato has participated in several operations openly, masquerading as an Orb Intelligence Agency operative in the Battle of Heliopolis, as well as the combat action at Artemis, where he managed to escape the custody of Vice-Admiral Abaddon and turn the entire crew of the Barachiel to Orb. Then he fought above Africa in Earth Orbit against Admiral Krowhart's Third Fleet. Afterwards, he engaged in several skirmishes on Earth, ranging from North Africa to the Indian Ocean before his mobile suit, the Augury, was destroyed in combat with the Watcher's Samyaza, piloted by Commander Lena Abaddon. However, according to Commander Abaddon, Yamato managed to evacuate the Augury prior to its destruction, impossible as it seems.  
Presently, judging by the vicinity of both ZAFT ships and the Barachiel, it is likely that Yamato has already been recovered, and is at Orb.

Skills: Eyewitness accounts suggest Yamato is an extremely skilled mobile suit pilot, with a kill count numbering in the dozens, including ZAFT and OMNI kills.  
Also, judging by progress reports and teacher comments recovered from the Heliopolis Institute of Technology, Yamato is extremely skilled in computer software technology, and thus can be said to be a highly proficient hacker as well. It should be noted that he was able to complete the Augury's Operating System during a fifteen-second lull in a fight with a ZAFT ZONGS.  
As a Coordinator, Yamato presumably possesses the same advanced learning capability, heightened intelligence, and increased healing rate, as well as the same near-immunity to diseases and viruses. However, if he is one of Hibiki's 'Ultimate Coordinators' then it could be said that his Coordinator attributes are greater than normal, probably to an extreme degree.

Side Note 1: The Blue Cosmos members of OMNI (e.g., most COs, NCOs, and quite a few enlisted soldiers) have noticeably increased preparations for the upcoming operation against Orb since Intel revealed the possibility of Yamato being an 'Ultimate Coordinator'.

Side Note 2: An increased reluctance to engage in said operation has been noted amongst the less fanatical Blue Cosmos members and much of the enlisted troops.

Personal Note: Considering Yamato's track record, I don't blame them.

Name: Jack Kagizaki

Aliases: Chimamare, Hajikidasu

Sex: Male

Date of Birth: May 13, 55 CE

Age: 16

Height: 163 centimeters

Weight: 54 kilograms

Blood Type: AB

Position: Unknown

Known Relations: George Smith (Deceased Father)

Genetic Type: Coordinator

Psychological Profile: Schizophrenic, Somewhat Sociopath

Political Leaning: Uncaring

History: Unlike Yamato, Jack 'Kagizaki', as he calls himself, is well-documented in OMNI.  
Formerly Richard Smith, an orphan, Kagizaki was a test subject in the 'Caligula' Project, one of several precursors to the BCPU Program. The Caligula Project was intended to create perfect Anti-Coordinator soldiers, just like the present BCPUs.  
But, instead of using biochemical modifications, Caligula utilized experimental nanotechnology developed from similar enhancements found in the corpses of some Orb military personnel. Surgical procedures implanted nano-factories to build and program nanomachines next to every major organ. The nanomachines would then proceed to modify the subject's body, grafting metal to the skeletal structure, increasing muscle density, and generally improving the performance and efficiency of internal organs.  
Most test subjects died, due to their bodies rejecting the modifications. Kagizaki, Subject E-58, lived. The procedure succeeded in almost all areas, excepting one.  
The nanomachines intended to 'rewrite' his original personality, turning him into an intelligent and capable, but loyal, soldier, malfunctioned. They instead created the alternate personalities Chimamare and Hajikidasu. The former took control of Kagizaki's body and rampaged throughout the facility, brutally slaughtering project personnel and surviving test subjects before moving on to the guards. The facility, located in Eurasia, was devastated, with only the main data-banks surviving.  
Afterwards, Kagizaki moved south, into Asia, before obtaining passage to Orb from former Thailand.  
There is then an unknown period of time where Kagizaki presumably befriended Yamato and became part of the Orb military or something similar.  
The next reliable report of Kagizaki is at Heliopolis, where he piloted the Kiba to single-handedly destroy a ZONGS-led team of ZAMS. Then he is reported to have participated in every combat action the Barachiel was in, rapidly racking up a kill count equaling, if not exceeding, Yamato's.  
More recently, Kagizaki was captured by Commander Abaddon and detained in the Grigori's brig. Afterwards, he was allowed to escape with the Kiba and the tracking beacon implanted in it.

Skills: Kagizaki's natural abilities are greatly enhanced by the nanomachine-made additions to his skeletal-muscular system and internal organs. As with Coordinators, his reflexes and healing rate are increased by a great deal, along with his intellectual capabilities.  
In combat, one of Jack's alternate personas takes over. It seems that the more 'creative' and bloodthirsty one, Chimamare, is the main combat operator. This alter appears to prefer close-range combat, utilizing mainly melee weaponry. Often, said weapons are improvised, ranging from sharpened pieces of metal in infantry combat to dismembered limbs in mobile suit battles. Kagizaki's other alter, Hajikidasu, seems to occasionally participate. However, he appears to prefer ranged combat, using mainly rifles.  
Kagizaki appears to possess some knowledge of mobile suit mechanics and the human body, and his alters use this knowledge mainly for increased efficacy in combat.

Side Note 1: The BCPUs appear to be especially eager to fight Kagizaki.

Side Note 2: Most of the normal military is especially unenthusiastic to face him in combat.

Personal Note: Considering Chimamare's tendancy to tear open cockpits and brutally dismember pilots, I **really** don't blame them.

Personal Note 2: Recommend both Yamato and Kagizak be labeled as 'Persons of Mass Destruction' (PMD)

Reading over the two profiles, Edward felt a slight twinge of pride every time the words 'Commander Abaddon' passed his eyes, even tearing up a bit as he remembered his daughters promotion. Immediately after that, he chuckled a bit when reading the personal notes.

_I gotta remember to track down this guy. He doesn't wrap up his reports in layers of shit to cover his own ass._ As a soldier, Abaddon hated bureaucrats on principle. After digesting the rest of the documents, he leaned back in his chair and stared at the ceiling.

Neither Kira nor Jack especially liked Blue Cosmos, with the former actually hating it while the latter really didn't give a shit. This, especially, was important to Abaddon.

After all, as a Coordinator, Edward was bound to be eventually found out by Blue Cosmos.

- Quis est a Iuguolo nisi a Iuguolo? -

A/N: Shock! Gasp! Backstory!

I bet none of you saw that coming, did you? Well, maybe you Velshard, although I doubt that.

("Hell, I didn't see it coming and I live in your head!")

Considering you spend your time attempting to take over my body, I'm not surprised. I really should be careful though. Don't wanna end up like Ichigo.

("Oh come on! You know you want to run around with a mask of my face on! And while we're talking about me, why won't you let me into your Code Geass Author Notes?")

I should think that would be self-evident.

("The reviewers love me!")

I'll leave that up to them.

Anyway, I have to apologize again for the wait, but I've been working on my CG fic for a while (which those of you who Author Alerted me should know) and haven't really had time to come back to this fic for a while. The first 2,000 or so words were just sitting there, gathering dust.

Anyway, I'll be trying to keep this updated along with my CG fic.

Should I succeed, I demand you worship me.

("He's joking, don't take him seriously")

Well, it's either that, or they worship you for being one of the most hindering things in public conversation.

Oh yeah, before I go, see if you can spot the Lucas and Darker than Black cameos.

("Should be pretty easy")

Knightmare Gundam of Ni


	34. Phase 20: Tetsujin

Gundam Seed: Killer's Realm

Phase 20: Tetsujin

The group of Andrew, Liene, Karl, Kira, Jack, Mu, Murrue, Athrun, and Rau and his team exited the transports at the first stop while the rest of the Barachiel crew, ZAFT politicos, and Orb natives continued on.

For the non-Orbites, the stop was underwhelming, to say the least.

Before the group was a small cabin that could have come right out of an old painting of a log cabin in the middle of the North American plains. Except placed at the very edge of a cliff and run-down, with sections of the walls rotting right off and the door hanging open by a single hinge.

Andrew led the way inside, Kira and Jack following quickly with an eager air. Liene took the rest in then. As they expected, it was a fairly stereotypical 'wild west' decoration, with a fireplace, bear rug and trophies on the wall.

"Alright, what's this about?" Mu asked, somewhat mystified. Judging by the hints Karl had dropped, they should have been going to see Orb's new mobile suit. He'd been expecting to go to some kind of high-tech hanger, not a dump of a cabin! That was when Andrew and Liene shoved some sort of ID card into what appeared to be cracks in the wooden walls.

The walls and ceiling promptly began to rise - actually, it was the floor descending, revealing a mix of an extremely dark concrete and steel, with lines of light running up and down to provide illumination. None of those present could tell just how fast they were descending, but they arrived at wherever they were going in seconds. The floor/elevator stopped, leaving them all incongruously staring at a thick metal door flanked by keypads while surrounded by Civil War-era Western-style furniture.

Both Andrew and Liene stepped up to the keypads and started punching in numbers, with Jack turning around and talking.

"Both of these keypads are made of a mix of a copper/silver casing with conductive gel keys and integrated biometric software, linked up to Orb's database. Should a person whose biometric data does _not_ match with any of the records in the database, a very large shock is delivered into their system through the keypad."

"I remember." Yzak growled. "You set up your room with one." Dearka and Nicol clamped their hands onto their mouths, muffling the chuckles that came as they remembered happening to see Yzak during that 'incident'

"Of course not." Jack said, grinning that mad grin. "That was one I jury-rigged from some scrap. If I had one of these on my door, you'd have died the first time you so much as brushed against it." At this point, the door had been open for a few seconds, with Andrew and Liene moving on. The group moved into what looked like a tramway or something similar in a tunnel just about large enough for three Mobile Suits to walk side by side, waiting for a few seconds before a tram showed up, doors already opening in anticipation. The Orbites moved onto the tram first, with former OMNI and ZAFT personnel hesitatingly following.  
As the tram started up, Liene directed their attention to the right with the wave of a hand. They saw what looked like four large sets of train tracks.

"This tunnel is an extinct lava tube, which we found when some of the initial construction teams broke in around this general area. Those are four Maglev tracks for a gantry system allowing us to more easily move supplies throughout Orb and the facilities we have under construction." He explained as the tram picked up speed, until it was proceeding at a rapid pace through the tunnel. Barely a minute passed before everyone saw what was their presumable destination.  
It was a large blast-door, about two meters tall and wide enough for two people to pass side-by-side. On either side were two depressions large enough for an adult human's arm to fit. "This is part of the security system, similar to the electroshock keypads." Liene explained as he and Andrew stepped up to the depressions and inserted their arms. "If your biometric data doesn't match any in the database, a monomolecular-edged blade coated in specially programmed nanomachines and anti-coagulants slices your arm off, ensuring that you'll die in a few minutes from blood loss, if not earlier."

That caused a universal shudder in the audience, except for Kira and Jack, who merely grinned viciously.

The blast doors started opening then, sliding into the wall or ceiling, with the first door sliding up, the second right, the third down, and the last left. As they proceeded, the group saw another blast door similar to the first, opened with the same procedure, to reveal yet another. After the the fifteenth, Dearka noted:

"Man, it doesn't look like even the Bastion's cannon could blast through here."

"Indeed, it could not." Liene noted, sliding his arm out of the sixteenth door's lock. "This facility is even more impenetrable than Artemis, and unlike that space station, you cannot sneak around these defenses." Nicol flushed slightly as Yzak and Dearka threw him sly looks (well, Yzak's was more threatening). After the last, thirty-second door, they emerged into a dark area, where the Maglev tracks resumed. Unlike the tunnel or the blast door-sealed entrance, their voices and footsteps didn't noticeably echo. It was also at this point that everyone noticed the slight blue lines of cybernetic quantum nerve lines tracing over Andrew and Liene's bodies, as well as their glowing eyes. It made most of those not familiar with the two shudder.

"Yudl - Ay - WEEE - HOoooo!!" Jack yodeled into the darkness with a volume that spoke well of his vocal chords' strength. Everyone paused to listen intently to the echo, only hearing it about six seconds after the yodel. "Damn this place is big." he said.

"Indeed. Currently, we are inside of an Orb facility built inside an extinct lava dome, 9 kilometers below the surface of the Earth." Liene informed, the eerie blue glow of his eyes whisking over to eye the group for reactions. There was an air of awe and fright emanating from the OMNI and ZAFT people, and Liene didn't fault them for it. Finding out that Orb had one or more facilities like this and having no clue of it would be like if the OIA found out about some ZAFT deep-space technology institute, or an OMNI sub-lunar G-Project factory, for example.

The engineer then walked over to a console next to one of the Maglev gantries, and hit a switch.

Spotlights lit up the end of the gantry, revealing a mobile suit that, much to Liene's pleasure, cause the group to gasp in awe - or horror.

"I present to you: The Tetsujin." The mobile suit immediately seized their gazes for a number of reasons, one was its size and basic proportions, looking to stand at about 20 meters tall but having a much more lithe design instead of being as bulky and compact as most every other suit in existence. The next part they noticed was it's armor which almost looked to be the same glossy bluish black color of an insect's exoskeleton but appeared to be almost seamless and having a smooth curving organic design that seemed to perfectly fit the MS like a suit of armor. Something seemed odd about it's leg design but realizing shortly that that was because it's legs were distinctly non-human in their design, looking more like a feline or a bird of prey's hind leg and having two large long forward facing 'toes' per foot and two shorter ones where the heels should be. This led to them noticing even finer details of the suits design, notably the vicious looking talons at the end of each Raptor like leg's toes, the way the tips of the suits knees, elbows, shoulders, and fingers all seemed to flow into wickedly sharp tips.  
The final part of the suit to be analyzed now in detail was it's head, which somewhat creepily looked more like it was designed after a Ninja's cloth masks and head gear with a thin narrow strip for it's eyes but possessed an over sized visor that almost looked like the sharply out-thrust beak of a bird of prey. The suit almost looked to be sagging slightly in it's cradle with it's head tilted forward as though sleeping exposing a pair of short but exceptionally wide silver V fins that seemed to travel parallel to the top of it's head. The overall impression this new Mobile suit gave off was of something distinctly Alien, an otherworldly predator who was for the moment at least sleeping peacefully but at the same time waiting eagerly to be disturbed from it's slumber. Those who had never laid eyes on it before felt some primal part of themselves shrink away from the Sentinel before them as well as experiencing a spine tingling sensation as they gazed on the details of it's design.

"The MBF-MP5 Tetsujin is the newest and first Orb mobile suit. It was developed by using both OMNI and ZAFT technology that we.....obtained, as well as Morgenroete's independent research." OMNI technology was obtained by hacking their databases, the disguise of SpecOpsIntel teams as ZAFT commandos and subsequent infiltration of top-secret R&D divisions, and of course, OMNI's idiotic contracting of Morgenroete to aid in its G-Project. ZAFT technology was obtained by similar methods, along with the hiring of mercenaries to obtain mostly intact ZAMS, ZONGS and SCAU mobile suits.  
"The armor that gives it that color is a Laminated Hybrid Hyper Alloy consisting of a combination of monocrystalline titanium carbide nitride reinforced by aggregated diamond nanorods, or hyperdiamond, all sandwiching a core of beryllium composite cermet material. This combination gives the Tetsujin enormous survivability, as the combination of enormous tensile strength and elasticity allow it to survive even the Noctoraptor's Ballistra rifle, or the Samyaza's minature HALC."

_Damn. I wonder if I can convince them to let me pilot this Gundam...._Mu thought.

"The motive system is far more advanced than what modern mobile suits use. Where as others use simple blocks of electroactive polymer, the Tetsujin's high-density electroactive polymer-fiber bundles are based off of organic musculature and give it a power to weight ratio of more than 6:1, as compared to a ZONGS 2:1 ratio. As a result of this, as well as the raptor-like leg construction, the Tetsujin has a running - yes, running - speed of over 500 kilometers per hour, outstripping the GAHMU and the Megalodon, the two fastest terrestrial mobile units before the Tetsujin. The Tetsujin's internal frame is based on that of humans for the main body, and the extant Deinonychus of the Cretaceous period, and consists of hollow hexagonal structures containing in order to limit weight."

_Hmm...I wonder if they would let me 'borrow' this Gundam...._Was what was running through Yzak's head at the moment. Then Liene said:

"Rather impressive for a Mass production suit if I do say so myself." At that moment, other spotlights flickered on, revealing a host of more than two hundred Tetsujins arrayed in formation on their gantries behind the one the group was studying. Eyes popped, jaws dropped, and a few of the weaker-willed viewers dropped, the shock far too much for their strained systems. Jack's 'normal' mad grin extended into a hideous skull-like rictus of glee. Kira's expression, however, chilled those who noticed it, a cold and unfeeling mask of grim enjoyment.

"There are, however, some problems with the Tetsujin." Came the random sentance. Heads whirled to see a woman step out from behind the Tetsujin, striding up to the group.

"May I present Erica Simmons, fellow Tetsujin developer and head of Morgenroete's Mobile Suit Research and Development division." Liene introduced, stepping aside to allow Erica the spotlight.

"What's the problem?" Kira asked, somewhat concerned.

"Well, the numerous.....'control programs' are interfering with one another. Orb's overall C3 system, SCAI-Net, can't interface with the unit and test pilots can't even move them. Most of our pilots have had to make do with simulator training. We were hoping you can resolve the problem in your usual timely manner so we can start running tests on them at their full operational capacity."

"Alright. Let's get to work then." Kira said, motioning for them to lead the way.

- Quis est a Iuguolo nisi a Iuguolo? -

**Joint Supreme Headquarters - Alaska (JOSH-A), Docks, Grigori Upper Hanger Deck  
**

David Sariel shivered as he stood next to Abaddon and Thatcher, watching as the younger Abaddon, Thatcher's subordinate, and the new G Unit pilots gathered with the rest of the Grigori's crew. The Grigori's entire Constantine congingent was gone, replaced by Thatcher's five-suit Strategos team and the two new Gundams, the XGAT-117 Repulse and the XGAT-123 Outlaw. Abaddon had also hinted at another addition, for which the entire upper starboard hanger had been cleared out, the BCPU Gundams and Lena's Samyaza switched to the upper port hanger.

"Crew of the Grigori." Abaddon began suddenly, startling Thatcher and Sariel into high-strung positions of attention, along with the rest of the crew. "As you have probably suspected, the majority of OMNI Enforcer's terrestrial forces are gathering here, at JOSH-A, in preparation for a large-scale operation. Some of you have suspected a massive attack on all ZAFT terrestrial forces. Others have concluded that we are gathering in order to defend against an enormous orbital drop operation. Neither of these are completely right, nor are they completely wrong."

"This is Operation Retribution: An assault on Orb." Mutters streaked across the room at several times the speed of sound, or so it seemed to Sariel, so fast the conversational buzz had begun. "Orb is harboring a war criminal of extreme interest: Kira Yamato. He, among other objectives, is the goal of the Operation. Orb has also refused, multiple times, to join the Earth Alliance, as all terrestrial nations should-" There was a slight change in Abaddon's tone as he said the last statement, something only those who knew him well would have noticed: a slight sarcastic edge with a chill. "- and OMNI Enforcer High Command has deemed it proper for us to _correct_ this mistake. Another objective is the acquisition of the 'Kaguya' Mass Driver facility. The relatively few mass drivers we have are vulnerable to attack, and HighCom wishes to lessen the risk of us being cut off from our space-borne comrades."

At this point, the entire crew had already caught on to Abaddon's personal feelings about this operation. Hand-picked by him to serve on the Grigori, most had served with him on numerous battlefields over the years of the war, and had, of course, grown familiar with him.

"Also, OMNI Intelligence-" A slight hint of humor there at the oxymoron. "- has picked up hints of a large ZAFT space-to-ground operation, this time concentrated around the equator rather than the poles. Part of the forces here will head to Panama, the presumable target of this operation. The Grigori, however, and the majority of the fleet will move to pacify Orb. In preparation for this operation, I am ordering training drills for the crew and group simulations for mobile unit pilots. I expect you to do better than your best people. We are no longer merely watching." With that, Abaddon saluted the crew, and the crowd dispersed.

Sariel made to do the same, following Thatcher, but Abaddon's hand reached out and caught him by the shoulder.

"Hold on David. Your new unit is coming now." Startled slightly by the use of his first name on duty, Sariel followed Abaddon over to the right side of the hanger. The doors opened, revealing what appeared to be a large block being lifted up by several freight VTOLs before another nudged it forward ever so slowly. The block slowly slide back into the hanger, before stopping at the back, blocking the last three mobile unit berths.

"Ah....what is it?" Sariel asked. Without a word, Edward handed over the clipboard he'd been holding for the better part of the day. After flicking back and forth through the documents, David was officially breathless with awe. "Holy shit sir......"

"You always did like to play with scorpions." Edward noted with amusement, as David's mouth twisted into a pleased smirk.

_XMHA-001 Agares....I'm going to have some fun with you...._

- Quis est a Iuguolo nisi a Iuguolo? -

A/N: FINALLY!!!! I've finally managed to work my way to the Tetsujin, the almighty engine of destruction that is Velshard's most F*cking Awesome design yet! I also gotta thank him for helping me with the intro. Also, Abaddon's less informative presentation of the engine of more destruction that is my Agares. Yes, the Battle of Orb shall be epicness incarnate.

("That, or total loserness.")

Quite K'GoN

("Still waiting to hear about the Code Geass me.")

If you're lucky, you'll appear as a stuffed doll trod upon by the Bors.

("Sheesh, no need to get snappy.")

With you, there's always a need for snappiness

Nivek Beldo: no problem. As for Gary, there's probably going to be some segments focused on him and his team. Abaddon's Coordinator status is a rather large motivator in his actions to come. Thanks for the kudos, and there probably will be some....'romance' coming up. If somewhat badly done.

G. Wager: thank you

Play4ever: thanks

Velshard: I'm not all that sure what I'm doing with Halburton. At present, I think he's with his fleet somewhere over South America.

Mathiasosx: Thanks.

Oh yeah, Somebody got one of the Darker than Black references last chapter. The other was November-Seven, and the George Lucas reference was TK-421

Knightmare Gundam of Ni


	35. Phase 21: Politics

Gundam Seed: Killer's Realm

Phase 21: Politics

**Temporary Negotiation Site, Orb, February 18, 71 CE**

"If they didn't check you for weapons and lock you up if they found any, I'd have brought a knife to kill myself." Jack grumbled, tailing Kira and Liene into the building. For this particular meeting, it had been decided to use an unknown facility, an out-of-the-way place. Mainly because the content of the meeting would be of particular interest to any OMNI Enforcer Intelligence agents, or any Blue Cosmos sympathizers, and Orb SpecOpsIntel was making its paranoia clear.

The three friends walked through the halls, past a few dozen armed and armored Orb MPs, before emerging into a large round room. Aside from the lowest, circular part, wherein a large circular table capable of seating twenty max was placed, the room was seperated into three sections, one marked with the ZAFT flag above it, the other with the Orb flag, and the last unmarked.

They filed into the Orb section, of course, and were joined by Karl and several of the higher politicians from Orb. They kept away from them. Orb was far better in many cases than many of the now-defunct A.D.-era nations, but it still had to suffer through that most revolting of things, politics. In the ZAFT section, Rau, Athrun, and the rest of Le Creuset team sat, along with the majority of Lacus' bodyguards. In the unmarked sections was most of the 'unaffiliated', namely the former OMNI crew, counting among their number Mu, Murrue, Natarle, and the rest of the bridge crew, along with Murdoch.

Then their attention switched over to the central round section, as Uzumi and Andrew followed by the four other Noble families took their seats. Jack saved a very unpleasant grin for Unato Ema Seiran, while Liene and and Rondo Ghina Sahaku exchanged looks.

On the other side of the table, Lacus sat down, flanked by Miguel and John. Considering the delicacy of the situation, both global and orbital, this was probably going to be one of the first diplomatic negotiations to be conducted like this in centuries. The advent of near-instantaneous communications had rendered the status of diplomat little more than an honorific, whereas before a diplomat was pretty much considered to _be_ the country he or she was representing.

Considering the fact that any wireless communication between ZAFT and Orb was bound to be intercepted by OMNI orbital assets, it was too risky to talk about the current subject in such a manner, and shipping the actual heads of state in either direction was so far out of the question that no one had even mentioned it.

If anyone had any doubts about the seriousness of these talks, they were dispelled when a total of four power-armor-equipped Orb SpecOpsIntel teams took up positions around the doors. Kira nodded at the team guarding the door to the Orb section, all five of them either the skull-helmeted team-mates of Gary, or Gary himself.

"If we may get started." Uzumi said, nodding to Lacus. She nodded, smiled, and stood up, drawing the attention of everyone in the room.

"Thank you, Chief Representative." She began. "As you know, the PLANTS has been at war with the Earth Alliance since...." She went on to describe the continuous damages and difficulties experienced by not just the PLANTS, but even the Earth Alliance itself, and the mounting casualties in the conflict. "And thus, the PLANTS would like to ask the Orb Union for an alliance."

Needless to say, it wasn't really all that well received by some of the Orb people. It took a few entreaties from Uzumi to get them calmed down (and a few pointed stares from Andrew) before they could continue.

"We understand your situation Miss Clyne." Uzumi started. "But as you know, it is a principle of Orb not to attack another nation, or intervene in the conflicts of other nations."

"I understand and respect that Chief Representative Athha." Lacus replied, bowing slightly. "However, this conflict is already one in which Orb is involved in."

"What do you mean?" Uzumi asked, cocking his head to the side.

"Despite the fact that Orb has not actually taken real action in the war, the support of some of its more influential leaders-" A pointed glance at the Sahakus. "-Has led to the image that Orb has in fact taken a side by helping the Alliance in developing its mobile suits. And then there are the actions of Kira Yamato, who is well-affiliated with Orb, in coercing the crew of the Barachiel to defect. By any means, it would seem that Orb has gotten itself very involved."

A good number of the Orb politicians sitting at the table turned to glare at Kira. Upon meeting the bloodthirsty gaze of a Chimamare-influenced Jack and the space-cold stare of Kira, they turned back with their knees turned to jelly.

"You make a good point Miss Clyne." Andrew said, taking the stage from Uzumi. "Miss Clyne may ask of you just how many people died in the Nuclear attack on Junius 7?" Lacus looked at him, slightly confused by the out of the blue question but answers nonetheless.  
"Exactly 243,721 people died during the Junius 7 tragedy Mr. Payne. But surely you know this?" Andrew set a grim look to his features.

"I do Ms. Clyne. But would you agree that ZAFT's retaliatory actions of dropping Neutron Jammers all over the Earth during the April Fools Crisis was justified and above all else… Humane?" Lacus, Miguel, John, and the Le Creuset team with the exclusion of Rau himself, seemed slightly uncomfortable by the intensity of his question

"Well yes Mr. Payne I think it was given the circumstances, though I personally would have preferred if it had not have happened." Andrew at this point seemed perfectly calm but in the room everyone felt a sort of ominous sensation.

"Ms. Clyne would you care to make an educated guess at how many civilians on Earth have died as a direct result of the April Fools Crisis?"

"I can't say that I honestly can Mr. Payne"

"Would you like for me to give you an estimate based on conclusive facts?" Lacus simply nodded her head in a slightly disturbed affirmative. "Since April 1st C.E. 65 till now my intelligence division has gathered enough information to come up with a reasonably accurate figure. Current estimates and reports would indicate that the death tolls in the vast majority of earth metropolises and urban areas are now over 95 Percent, some of them in hospitals and due to the shutdown of crucial medical equipment from the power outages. Others are due to the failure of high-speed public transportation systems. Other causes include the spread of sickness and disease due to the failure of waste-disposal systems, Optimistically speaking this means that a mere 2,769,530,000 civilians died as a direct result of ZAFT's drop of N-Jammers upon that day." Lacus and the rest of the ZAFT and PLANT representatives had looks of horrified shock on their faces. Andrew proceeded with a very cold tone to his voice "Tell me Ms. Clyne how does the destruction of Junius 7 and it's inhabitants humanely justify that number of deaths. Orb can not ever ally it's self with ZAFT officially, making some deals under the table is fine but realistically I should have you, your entourage, and every member of ZAFT within Orb arrested and handed over to the Earth Alliance as a peace offering." Everyone tensed then, the SpecOpsIntel teams in the center stepping slightly forward as Miguel and John reached for their side-arms. "The only reasons I don't is because you did help to protect many Orb refugees and Orb property, as well as the simple fact that the Earth Alliance and OMNI Enforcer will still legitimize a seizure of Orb's Sovereignty anyways. My own personal rules also mean I'm loath to betray you and your people in such a manner but an official alliance between Orb and the PLANTs can not and will not happen so long as I have the power to stop it. Am I clear?"

"But......Minister Zala....he said that there would be few casualties....and that only the OMNI Enforcer military would be affected in any meaningful way...."Lacus muttered, coming to terms with the new information.

"Then I would suggest that you contact the PLANT Supreme Council for clarification." Andrew said coldly. "Until then, I would suggest that we adjourn for a break." Everyone filed out then, and all took notice of the two powered-armored soldiers looking after the PLANT and ZAFT members.

- Quis est a Iuguolo nisi a Iuguolo? -

**7 Minutes into Break**

"You wanted to see me sir?" Gary asked, coming to attention before Andrew. His helmet was tucked under his arm, and his rifle holstered on the right shoulder hardpoint of his armor.

"Yes Captain." The SpecOpsIntel head replied. Nominally, Kira, as the Prince of Orb, had total command over all military and intelligence agencies, ranging from the Air and Space Forces to the Marines. In practice however, he generally followed the lead of those who had fought and risen in their respective services. Essentially, Kira was a figurehead, albeit a very effective one. "I want you to prepare your team for a space operation." Gary's eyes gleamed at that. Most of his service had been done on the ground, and he'd had few experiences with space.

"Where to sir?"

"Calm down. You might not have to go at all. But to answer, you'll be taking a Dojin-class troop cruiser to the PLANTs."

"A Dojin-class? I thought they were still in the testing phase."

"And so they are. If you go, it'll be a live-fire 'exercise'." That was the only question Gary asked before he saluted and turned smartly on his heel, marching to meet up with the remainder of his squad.

"Malakhov, gather the team. We're going for a trip."

"Da Captain. Where to?" Gary grinned, the cybernetic eyes in his skull flaring a bright green as he placed his helmet back on his head.

- Quis est a Iuguolo nisi a Iuguolo? -

"WHAT!?" Siegel Clyne barked, rather astonished at the out-of-the-blue accusation thrown out at one of his close friends and colleagues.

"I know. Are you sure Mr. Zala was speaking the truth?" Lacus asked urgently. If he hadn't....neither Clyne would be happy with him.

"I don't think he was Lacus." The pop star jumped slightly and turned to find the ace mobile suit pilot and son of the person in question, Athrun Zala standing blankly behind her.

"Athrun!"

"You know, after Junius Seven.....I don't think that he was really in his right mind." Athrun continued, his mind working over every time he'd seen his father since that Bloody Valentine....since his mother died.

"And what do you suggest we do?" Siegel asked, not without some sympathy.

"I'd suggest you get out of there." They all looked to see Kira standing nearby, Jack and Liene flanking him. "If Patrick Zala has managed to keep the actual casualty figures a secret from _everyone_ on the Supreme Council and those affiliated with them, that means he has the support of much of ZAFT and the media."

"And that means," Liene continued, "That if any of you started asking 'questions' then there will probably be a few 'disappearances', so to speak."

"So I think you'd better bug the fuck out right now." Jack stated, openly and bluntly as was his nature.

"I....I suppose that would be the most prudent course of action..." Siegel agreed, nodding. "Very well. But where are we going to run to, and how?"

"There's a colony at Lagrange 4." Kira supplied. "It's rather run down, especially since it was attacked by Blue Cosmos, but we managed to restore most of it. It's large enough to hold all of what you'll have. You should probably start by contacting all the ZAFT units that you know can be trusted, and smuggle your families out through "

"Thank you Mr. Yamato."

"It's my pleasure."

Lacus said good-bye to her father and closed the line. She gave Kira a thankful look, before turning to glance concernedly at Athrun. The ZAFT Red pilot was leaning against the wall, looking suitably shell-shocked for someone who's learned their father may be one of the worst mass-murderers of all time. Kira wordlessly walked over and leaned against the wall next to him

"Hey....Remember that time in 4th grade, when we reprogrammed the cafeteria robots?" Kira asked, drawing a snort and a chuckle from Athrun.

"They went nuts and started splattering everyone with mashed potatoes and gravy." He snorted, drawing Kira with him into a short, shared laugh.

"And that time, when we hacked the teacher's in-school messaging programs and started sending around bogus messages." Kira managed to blurt out through the guffaws.

"They thought there was a week-long holiday!" Athrun wheezed, drawing the two into further spirals of hilarity as more incidents were remembered.

That was when everyone else in the immediate vicinity joined in, Lacus telling Kira about some of Athrun's successes during their five-year long separation, Jack informing them of some of the more embarrassing aspects of Kira's life since then, and Liene regaling them with some of his technological exploits.

- Quis est a Iuguolo nisi a Iuguolo? -

**21 Minutes Later**

They all reconvened about thirty minutes after Andrew called for a break, with some noticeable exceptions. Rau was missing from the ZAFT section, while Liene had gone to work on the Tetsujins and 'other projects', saying that the outcome had been decided. Miguel and John were now seated in the ZAFT section, and the Orb SpecOpsIntel team in the center section had likewise been redeployed to guard the Orb section, while Gary's Shoki team had disappeared somewhere.

"Miss Clyne, would you like to start?" Uzumi asked, leaning forward, elbows on the table and hands intermingled in front of him.

"Yes Mr. Athha." Lacus said, rising from her seat. "After communicating with Chairman Clyne, and select members of the PLANT Supreme Council, it has been determined that Minister Zala and others of the Supreme Council, as well as some of ZAFT's high-ranking personnel, have deceived us and the PLANTs. Thus, it is determined that Patrick Zala and his supporters are war criminals of the highest order, and shall be arrested and turned over to Orb personnel, to be turned over to the Earth Alliance."

"Heh, politics." Jack muttered to Kira.

"I have to say, this seems to be a rather important scapegoat." Andrew said slowly.

"Not at all." Lacus denied. "After viewing the current evidence of his initial deception over the effects of the Neutron Jammers, it has been judged that Zala and his supporters cannot be trusted any longer."

"You do realize that arresting him is unlikely in the extreme? Considering that, by your own word, he has managed to subvert the majority of ZAFT HighCom to his side, it would mean that even speaking to him of it is more likely to get you killed and your family imprisoned, at best." Andrew pointed out, still resting in his chair.

"Chairman Clyne and the rest of the loyal Supreme Council members are aware of this." Lacus said. "However, Minister Zala must be made to answer for his crimes." Andrew nodded at this.

"In that case, I would like to make a request." Lacus waited. "If you could agree to allowing a team of Orb personnel to be present, as an act of goodwill...."

"Of course."

No one had made any mention of fleeing. Nor of the fact that the team of Orb personnel would be armed and armored as though for war. Or of the fact that, at that moment, Siegel Clyne was sending out orders that sent loyal ZAFT personnel scrambling all over the PLANTs, prepping Nazca and Laurasia-class ships for launch, downloading codeword -classified data onto portable hard drives, and escorting the families of certain higher-up politicians to some of the ships.

- Quis est a Iuguolo nisi a Iuguolo? -

"Alright guys," Gary started, "Here's the situation. The PLANTs want us to become bosom-buddies. However, the Neutron Jammers and the resulting civvie death toll have tweaked the tail of our august leader, Andrew, and so they've offered us a scapegoat in the form of Minister of Defense Patrick Zala."

"I hear a 'but' in your voice Gary." Boris, the teams second-in-command and heavy weapons specialist said.

"Yeah, 'but'. BUT, Zala's got most of ZAFT eating out of his hand, and a good part of the Supreme Council on his side. So they're anticipating a blow-up."

"Mission Objectives?" Lilou, their infiltrator and only woman, asked.

"Well, it'd be nice if we could get Zala to come along peacefully." Gary said, scratching at his chin. "But, if the shit hits the fan, we GTFO with the Chairman and the rest of the loyal Supreme Council members."

"So, what are we going in?" John, Rapid Assault. Gary grinned at this, cybernetic eyes glowing even brighter.

"Mobile Uniform and Izanagi." Everyone was happy with that.

- Quis est a Iuguolo nisi a Iuguolo? -

A/N: Things are amping up. OMNI is on the anti-Orb warpath, ZAFT is splitting at the seams, and even the peaceable and neutral Orb is gearing up for war.

If you can guess just what the Mobile Uniform is, I applaud you.

("MMPHP!!")

Hmm? What's that? I can't hear you with the shredded towel stuffed in your vocalization unit.

("GHRAGHAFE")

You can't move you say? Maybe you should take off those tight and restraining chains off of your limbs. Anyway.....

00virtuezero: It most certainly is. Oh, and Jack's definitely not going to like Michael.

: thanks. I was just thinking about that myself. At this point, Lena is pretty much like the CAG on an aircraft carrier, she has overall control over the mobile suits on the ship.

nequam-tenshi: Your eyes are really gonna bleed when I get around to the Tetsujin Tech Chapter.

Knightmare Gundam Of Ni


	36. PseudoPhase: The Argonauts

Gundam Seed: Killer's Realm

Pseudo-Phase: The Argonauts

INITALIZE PROGRAM: 'CYBERNETIC TRANS-NEURAL INTERFACE 1.2.8'

............

INITIALIZED

DOWNLOAD DATA 'IFF 1.5'

.........

DOWNLOAD COMPLETE

INITIALIZE TRAINING PROGRAM 'GAMMA 14'

OBJECTIVES:  
1) CAPTURE TARGET  
2) DESTROY OPPOSITION

CLARIFICATIONS:  
1) TARGET IS ALIVE  
2) NO FRIENDLY FIRE

BEGIN.

........

ALPHA 1 LOCATED OPPOSITION: NUMBER: 15 EQUIPMENT: HEAVY

ALPHA 2 MOVING TO ASSIST

.........

ALPHA 7 LOCATED TARGET.  
CAPTURING........

ALPHA 8 LOCATED TARGET + OPPOSITION: NUMBER: 1

ALPHA 7 DOES NOT CONFIRM

ALPHA 8 TERMINATING..........  
ALPHA 7 TERMINATED  
OPPOSITION TERMINATED. ACQUIRING TARGET...........  
TARGET ACQUIRED. FIRING.

"Stop the simulation."

- Quis est a Iuguolo nisi a Iuguolo? -

"Alright, what's the problem here? What happened with Alpha 8?"

"There's no problem whatsoever with the programming or the augmentations. All the other Alpha units received the exact same data sets and augmentation modules, along with the same biochemical and skeletal-muscular alterations."

"It's his mentality, that's the problem. It's not that the augmentations, programs, or data are flawed or wrong, its that he's simply ignoring them to do what he wants to which, quite simply, is to slaughter everyone and everything in range."

"So, essentially, he's perfect."

".....From a certain point of view, yes."

"Put him in Stage 2. Now, how are the other Alpha units?"

"Alpha 1 is performing exactly as expected. As with Commander Abaddon, he's not as aggressive as the others, but he retains more of his higher brain functions and has tighter control over his urges, while maintaining his instinctive reaction times and super-sensory abilities. In terms of cybernetic functionality, he's actually performing better than expected. The synchronization rate between the central control computer and his augmented nervous system is over 250%, and his control over both electroactive polymers and nanofilament-enhanced musculature is astounding."

"And the others?"

"Not quite as well, but coming up. Alpha 2 is having some difficulty controlling his shoulder weapons, and Alphas 5-7 are still getting used to their new leg augmentations, although simulations indicate that they will be up to speed within 57 hours. Alphas 3 and 4 are performing just adequately."

"And what of the Pilot Extendeds?"

"Well, most of them have yet to see any action, except for Commander Abaddon. She, however, did manage to defeat Kira Yamato."

"That was more due to the Samyaza's Hashish blades. However, I suppose she could be considered a success, as Yamato is the Ultimate Abomination."

"Anyway, we still have high hopes for the Pilots. However, the Argonauts have actually met our hopes."

"Good. And what of production and advancement?"

"At best, we can ensure limited production in one year, maybe two. As for technological improvement, we're working on a new capacitor design along with ionization arrays. Hopefully, we can develop small arms-scale beam weapons. At worst, we'll make some improvements to standard beam weaponry."

"Hmm.....well, its probably the best we'll get. Good job gentlemen. But before we go....."

"Yes?"

"I want to meet with Alpha 8."

"........."

- Quis est a Iuguolo nisi a Iuguolo? -

SUSPENDING SLEEP MODE.

ACTIVATING PRIMARY CAMERA ARRAYS.

INITIALIZING IDENTIFICATION SOFTWARE.  
SCANNING.........  
SCANNING........

TARGET NOT IN DATABANKS.

"Hello Arnold."

REBUTTAL: GO FUCK YOURSELF SUIT.

"No need for rudeness. I'm just here to-"

INTERJECTION: I REALLY DON'T WANT TO LISTEN TO YOU. HOW ABOUT YOU COME HERE?

"As if I'd fall for that. Now, you may not know me, but surely you can guess my position?"

HYPOTHESIS: PROBABLY THE PROGRAM BOSS

"Exactly. Now, I know from the simulations that you don't exactly like working with other people.....but what doing so could get you what you want? The chance to kill more, to imprint yourself so forcefully on the memory of your victims that the descendants of those who survive will cower at the feet of your succesors, and maybe you."

QUERY; WHAT ARE YOU SAYING?

"What if, you could work with others like yourself, to eradicate all those before you?"

........

"The only thing you'd have to do is listen to me."

.........

"I'll leave you to ponder."

.........INITIALIZING SATELLITE LINK.

ACCESSING BCPU PROGRAM NETWORK........

ACCESS GRANTED.

SEARCH: PROGRAM ANOMALIES  
SEARCHING.......  
SEARCHING........

FIVE RESULTS  
ALPHA 8  
GAMMA 4  
THETA 9  
OMICRON 6  
OMEGA 1

DOWNLOAD DATA 'GAMMA 4 RECORD, THETA 9 RECORD, OMICRON 6 RECORD, OMEGA 1 RECORD'.  
DOWNLOADING........  
DOWNLOADING........  
DOWNLOADING.......  
DOWNLOADING.......

READING DATA: 784 GIGABYTES PER SECOND  
READING.......  
READING.......  
READING......

COMMENT: OH FUCK YEAH!

- Quis est a Iuguolo nisi a Iuguolo? -

"I think you convinced him sir."

"Don't be ridiculous. He convinced himself. All I did was plant the notion in his head."

"So what are we going to do with him?"

"Put him in a team with the others like him."

"And then?"

"Why, let them do their job. In the PLANTs."

"That's.....that's.......that's diabolical. You're brilliant."

"Thank you. The space monsters won't know what hit them. For a Blue and Pure World."


	37. Phase 22: A Departure From

Gundam Seed: Killer's Realm

Phase 22: A Departure from.......

**Onogoro Island, Kaguya Mass Driver Facility  
February 19, 71 CE  
7:21 AM**

The day after the beginning - and end - of the diplomatic talks, Shoki Team was raring to go into space, which was one of the few areas they had much experience in despite a literal decade of service in the Orb Military, which was famous for its particular expertise in that least limiting of environments.

As they suited up, and headed to their shuttle, they paused upon seeing an OMU-suited person standing in front of their shuttle's door, holding one of Morgenroete's new GSG-24 Gauss Shotguns. Instead of the standard black of most OMUs, it was silvery in color and its helmet looked like it was crafted to resemble a lion's skull. It was only when they drew closer when they realized that his helmet wasn't made to look like a lion skull. It was actually pieces of a lion's skull attached to resemble a mask to the outside of his helmet. On the hip of the OMU was a large scabbard, holding a blade that looked to be almost a meter long.

"Now, you little girls weren't about to leave without me, were you?" Came the voice of Karlton William Hertz through their comms system, startling Gary. Rather than saluting his superior as most of the normal military would Gary just shook his head.

"You know, I was hoping to do this job quietly Mr. Hurtz." That elicited a guffaw from the amicable major, and they all walked into the shuttle, settling down inside.

In the control booth for the Mass Driver, Andrew watched as they boarded, and the corner of his mouth twitched up slightly in malicious amusement. _Patrick Zala, I give you Hell._ He thought.

- Quis est a Iuguolo nisi a Iuguolo? -

**Main Island, Zenopolis City**

Almost one hundred kilometers away, the sonic boom generated by the trans-atmospheric shuttle accelerated to hypersonic speeds, a sonic boom that could capsize a yacht when in close proximity, was a mere _crack_, like the sound of a whip.

"Well, that's them going." Kira said, standing in front of the group of ZAFT pilots and Orb refugees trying to see the shuttle as it left. "They're off."

"Hey, did you know that the sound a whip makes, that crack, is because of a miniature sonic boom generated when the end exceeds the speed of sound?" Jack said, hoping to impress anyone.

"You sound like a nerd." Yzak muttered.

"Thanks!" Jack replied, grinning in a vaguely disturbing manner. Dearka, who had been standing in between the two, nervously backed up and ducked behind Athrun and Nicol. Athrun was, Jack noticed, standing close to Cagalli. Almost too close.....

_"Do it, Do it!"_ Chimamare chanted inside his head, drowning out the well-mannered protests of Haji. Jack scooted over behind Athrun, and tripped when Cagalli moved away. At the dark blue-haird Coordinator's cry of surprise, Cagalli turned only to be thrown to the ground by the weight of one 60-plus kilogram coordinator.

As Athrun rose, heat flushing to his face as his current predicament, that of an apparent pervert assaulting the Princess of Orb, came to him, as the entire street turned to look and flashed looks of astonishment at each other.

"Oh, this is going to be a fun week." Jack/Chimamare cackled, to the displeased look of Kira.

- Quis est a Iuguolo nisi a Iuguolo? -

**189 Kilometers North of JOSH-A, Alaska  
February 19, 71 C.E.  
1:37 PM**

"Why the hell are we up here?" David asked, shivering in the arctic cold. Just behind him trotted Lena, wrapped in some of the thickest coats Edward could have found for her, while the eldest living Abaddon himself was marching through the snow with only a jacket, a scarf and thicker pants as a concession to the temperature. David himself could have easily passed for an Eskimo.

The trio had left their Model 5 Omnicar - a new product from the Orb-based Huynh Industries designed for multiple environments, vaguely resembling an APC stripped of armor and downsized - about 5 kilometers back, knowing that they'd set off the numerous super-magnetic mines laying under the permafrost and snow. In the current clear conditions, one could trace their footprints in the snow the entire way.

"Because Drake asked us up here." Edward snapped through gritted teeth. Drake was one of the very, very few individuals that lived through irritating the good Admiral, and for good reason. If it weren't for him, the Earth Alliance would still be fighting mobile suits with the old Moebius armors. And Edward hated him with a passion. "Let's just get a move on." Trudging through the snow, Edward pushed onwards, followed reluctantly by David and Lena, who had remained quiet. She was already in trouble for what had happened a few hours earlier. One of those new ensigns, Michael, had tried to make a move on her.

She'd left him with a sprained ankle and a broken pinky.

Edward, in his twin capacities of Commanding Officer and Father, had been doubly disapproving. Thus, she was stuck with another two hours of imposed silence and restricted simulator access. And she was also stuck accompanying her father and his executive officer to Drake's lair, one of the creepiest places she'd ever been in, and she'd been in some creepy places for a teenager.

After another eleven kilometers, they were there. Before them, rising up from the snow drifts, was a stone cairn about three meters tall from base to tip, and about three-fourths of a meter wide. Across the front, at chest height, was a block of lettering twenty characters wide by thirty high, each letter the size of a fingertip. Squinting through the glare, Edward pressed firmly on five of the letters, each one glowing a harsh sulfurous yellow to indicate activation. After the last letter was depressed, they proceeded to the opposite side, where an opening two meters by one-half opened, revealing a lift.

They rode it down for a minute before it automatically stopped, opening to reveal their destination.

The four hundred square meter room was dark, dank, and smelled heavily of reptiles. Why that was so was readily apparent, seeing as the walls were mainly occupied with various terrariums enclosing various reptiles of different species, ranging from small chameleons to enormous anacondas the likes of which had only been rumored to live in the deepest jungles. Off to the left was a door, guarded by two automated twin-barreled machine gun turrets hanging from the ceiling. Red targeting lasers showed where they aimed, and as soon as Edward stepped within a five meters of the door, they swept to cover him, traveling swiftly over his body as the attached cameras scanned him and uploaded their data to the central computer. A second later, the lasers turned blue, and the guns instead switched their robotic attention to Lena and David, the latter freezing up and shivering under the stress.

When all three were cleared, the door slid open, permitting them to enter the next room. This one was twice as big as the 'lobby', hosting larger enclosures in the walls for even bigger reptilian monsters, with horrendously large komodo dragons, crocodiles, and stranger ones populating them. The middle area of the room was furnished with tables, resting on top of which were various blueprints and schematics, including some for the more secretive Debris Belt facilities and Dark Moon Bases. However, some of the schematics were of mobile suits and weapons that none of them had even _heard_ of, much less seen. And considering that they were the three highest ranking Watcher officers, that was saying something.

In the middle, poring over some schematics, was a man, average in height, dressed in heavy concealing clothes, with various buckles and belts crisscrossing over it. A plain black hood covered his head, and the similarly black gloves had reinforced knuckles while his boots were tipped with metal.

"Vice Admiral Abaddon, Rear Admiral Sariel, and Commander Abaddon. How good it is to see you again." Drake said without turning. His voice was labored and wheezy, with a mechanical tone to it. When he turned, they saw why. Drake's face was covered by an old gas mask, or so it seemed. In reality, it was a sophisticated breathing assistance mechanism constructed within an old gas mask, that allowed Drake to breath without dying a horrible death.

Drake's story was one of special irony to Blue Cosmos, and was one of the reasons the Coordinator was allowed to live, besides the fact that he was a genius mobile unit engineer and inventor. He was a first generation Coordinator, and one of the few that were disastrous. His mother hadn't exactly stuck to the rules for having a Coordinator child. Indeed, she hadn't even stuck to the rules regarding normal children. She'd drunk, smoked, and done drugs of various manufacture during her pregnancy. It was a miracle she survived to have Drake. The combined chemicals and accompanying illnesses hadn't proved well for his developing body, and he'd thus been born two weeks early, a small and weak baby that wasn't expected to survive the hour.

Expecting to have a super-child whose coat-tails she'd ride to success, Drake's mother had just abandoned him in the hospital.

Drake, despite contrary expectations, had lived. He grew up with a severe asthma, and was allergic to everything under the sun except reptiles, which explained his own liking for the scaly creatures. He'd also been cursed with weak bones, underdeveloped muscles, and a tragically damaged nervous system. Medical procedures had helped in some respects, repairing his nervous system to an extent and reinforcing his bones. Physically speaking though, Drake had been a lost case.

Naturally, his time and intellect was turned entirely to the intellectual sciences, until he came to the attention of Blue Cosmos. Surprisingly, they chose to not kill him. When they'd offered him a job, he'd accepted it eagerly, stating a jealousy of all other Coordinators as his reason.

He'd been a part of both the G-Project and Byzantine, helping develop the Phase Shift Armor in the first case and designing the entirety of the Constantine in the latter. When the remnants of the G-Project and Byzantine had been hurriedly merged to create the BCPU Gundams, he'd developed Trans-Phase Shift Armor. He was also responsible for the creation of a few of the more interesting Equipment Packs used by both the Constantines and the Strategos.

And now, he worked on Edward's Gundam.

"It's very nice to see you again Drake." Edward said politically.

"Oh, please don't bother to lie through your teeth to me Edward." Drake wheezed, coughing out a chuckle. "I know fully well how you feel about me. So cut the crap and ask the question you want to." And that was why both Abaddons disliked, if not hated, Drake. He had no respect for anyone whatsoever, and knew that it didn't matter for shit.

"How is the Azazel coming along?" Edward gritted his teeth, keeping his hands at his sides. Drake stood there, studying him for a second. The modified gas mask's buglike eyepieces gleamed as he tilted his head, before turning and striding for a door.

"Oh, it's quite well." He said before opening the door, removing a glove to reveal a hand with skin scarred from surgery and liberally covered in sores. Lena stared. "Oh, don't mind this. I had a bad encounter with a rat." He chuckled, as though it was merely a matter of amusement. "Now, come." He proceeded, beckoning them forth. They followed him into a indistinguished hallway, to another door that opened into a hanger.

Under his mask, Drake grinned at the gasps behind him upon the sight of the black Gundam.

- Quis est a Iuguolo nisi a Iuguolo? -

A/N: Urgh, I really need to return more of my attention to this fanfic. Still, I really can't write non-combat stuff well.

("Maybe you should listen in English")

Just as soon as they stop boring me to death. Literally, I seem to go into a state of suspended animation. And who said you could talk?

("Um......")

Anyway, my great apologies for the short chapter. Although I hope some of the intrigue makes up for it. Ah well, next chap should see some action, interspersed among the daily life of the Orb citizen.....who also happens to be the adopted son of the most powerful man in Orb.

Infinite Freedom: Neither would I then.

FraserMage: Not quite so big as that, but the Izanagi is rather impressive I think.

G. Wagers: Well, to be fair, 'Get Zala' IS the deal.  
G. Wagers 2: Well, interesting things are certainly going to happen on the PLANTs.

Nivek Beldo: Thank you, and no problem. Where is Rau anyway? Go on, guess.

Ragnarok: Thank you, and please read more.

00virtuezero: I dunno, Chim's tendancy to kill and devour those who prove unable to fend him off might sour the potential friendship as well.  
Cool.

Mordalfus Grea: Well, these new guys from the Alliance should prove formidable.

Alex Yamato: The comparison has been drawn before. I like to think of Alpha 8 as a mix of HK-47 and the original Terminator. Same personality of the former, but operating like a skinned version of the latter.

Knightmare Gundam of Ni


	38. Phase 23: Normality, Part 1

Gundam Seed: Killer's Realm

Phase 23: Normality, Part 1

**Outer PLANT Defense Network**  
**February 20th, 71 CE**  
**1321 Hours**

"Go Fish." Gary said, smirking as Boris' face scrunched up into a look of disappointment. Grumbling, the Russian handed over a wad of cash before slumping back down in his seat.

Currently, Shoki Team was on board the STIEC-Y01 Dojin, a prototype light assault troopship that was, as with most of the Akuma Special Weapons Program products, still technically under testing in live operations. This operation was its first real operation, and there was a Morgenroete technical team along with the crew, tasked to gather data on how the Dojin worked. If the results satisfied both Orb CENTCOM's and Morgenroete's staff, then the Dojin would go into limited production.

"Hey Lilou, you got a Nine?" John asked, looking expectantly at their French infiltration specialist.

"Why in the name of Glenn are we playing this stupid game instead of poker?" She growled, handing over a nine and a 100-note bill.

"Because Gary can't bluff for shit, and hates to lose easy." Was Kuro's reply. "Got a king?" He asked Karl.

"Go Fish." The Major replied, hand out. Shoki team's medical officer wordlessly handed over a bill before scanning the rest of the team, as was his wont when they were set to go on an operation. "So why can't you bluff well Gary?" The team leader was silent.

"You know if you don't tell, we will." John said as his eyes glinted evilly.

"Fuck off Spartan." Gary snapped. "When I try to bluff, my right eye glows brighter." He answered Karl before grumbling further at his team, his green-glowing synthetic eyes focusing intently on his cards.

_"Shoki Team, we are approaching Aprilius One. Stand by in Ryuuzaken SOEIV pods."_

"Well, ladies, that's our cue." Karl said. Picking his helmet up from the ground and rising to his feet, he walked out the door of the port ready-room and into the Ryuuzaken loading chamber, a room that occupied the edges of the Dojin's side, with fifteen doors leading to pre-loaded Ryuukazen pods. As he secured his helmet, 'Mr. Hurtz' (his callsign) grabbed his gauss shotgun off of his back and held it close when he entered the pod.

Following his lead, the rest of Shoki Team started securing their armor and picking up their Izanagi Modular Linear Weapons, and proceeding to their own pods. Boris, 1st Lieutenant Malakhov, was standing in the ready room, glancing between two weapons. One was his Izanagi, outfitted with a 14.7mm bore, 63cm long light machine gun barrel with attached foregrip, short stock, close combat guncam, and an 800-round drum magazine. The other was a minigun-style weapon with three rotating barrels and a side-grip, about 72 centimeters in length total.

"Take the Izanagi, Malakhov." Captain Gary Shimizu, fully in his work persona, ordered. "Its more compact and won't melt through the PLANT's walls." Regretfully, Malakhov picked up the Izanagi by both grips and pushed pass Shimizu, entering his pod. After ensuring that each and every member of his team was secure in their Ryuuzaken SOEIV, Shimizu picked up his Izanagi, fitted with a 7.62mm by 51cm assault rifle barrel with foregrip, long stock, extended range guncam, and a 50-round magzine, and entered his pod.

"Alright, Shoki Team, uplink to the Dojin's command network." Uplinking between the Team's OMU suit computer systems and the Dojin's allowed easy command, control, and communications between all of the suits and the ship, thus allowing the unit to work more effectively together while also keeping command staff informed of each soldier's individual status.

"Chiyu, uplink established." 2nd Lieutenant Kuro Akatsuki reported.  
"Surin, linked." Sergeant Major Lilou de Couteau.  
"Mjolnir, ready." Sergeant Major John Spartan.  
"Topor, set." 1st Lieutenant Boris Vladimirovich Malakhov.

"Shepherd is linked. Dojin, Shoki Team is set." Captain Gary Anderson Shimizu said.

"This is Mr. Hurtz. Your boys and girl know what's going on, right Shepherd?"

"Yes Mr. Hurtz. We're gonna pull Clyne's ass out of the fire."

"Just don't say that in front of him or Miss Clyne."

- Quis est a Iuguolo nisi a Iuguolo? -

**Aprilius One, Space Dock**

Miguel and John were nervous as they stepped off the Gamow and onto the docks. What they were doing was, sorta, treason. Except, how is it treason if fully half of your ruling body is doing the same thing, while the other half has committed war crimes of a previously unimaginable scale? It was just one of those situations where you followed someone and hoped for the best.

And Miguel, quite naturally, had sided with the Clynes. Like most Coordinator teens, he was quite taken with Lacus, and he wasn't about to raise a hand against her or her father.

"You sure about this Miguel?" John asked. While both Redcoats were fairly nervous, only John was visibly agitated. He was glancing from side-to-side frantically and was rather jittery. "I have this feeling....that everything's just gonna go to hell soon."

"Don't worry." Miguel said, putting on a confident face. "Everything is perfectly alright."

- Quis est a Iuguolo nisi a Iuguolo? -

**Moon, Darkside Base 3**

"And you're sure they're on target?"

"Very. We had our three top orbital physicists do the math, and then sent the data to Drake to verify it. There's an error of .012%, so its likely they'll be dispersed throughout the PLANT, but that's actually rather ideal for our purposes."

"Good. I've just had word from some of our sympathizers that Lacus Clyne is getting back to the PLANTs right now."

"Where was she?"

"No idea. But, I have my suspicions, and anyway its pointless. She'll be dead within the hour anyway."

"Sir, how can you be sure?"

"Because these five, these Argonauts, are relentless, and the only thing ZAFT has that might stop them are mobile suits, and they won't deploy those in Aprilius One, not their capitol PLANT. This, our second major blow to the Space Monsters, is underway." Muruta Azrael finished, a ghoulish grin on his face.

- Quis est a Iuguolo nisi a Iuguolo? -

SUSPENDING SLEEP MODE.  
ACCESSING COMMUNICATIONS NETWORK: ARGONAUT 13 SP

ALPHA 8 QUERY: ARE WE THERE YET?

OMEGA 1 ANSWER: JUST THREE HUNDRED SEVENTY-NINE SECONDS TO IMPACT.

ALPHA 8 REPLY: GOOD. I'M STARTING TO GET SICK OF THIS 'SLEEP MODE'.

OMEGA 1 QUERY: NIGHTMARES?

ALPHA 8 ANSWER: NO.

............

ALPHA 8 QUERY: WHY THE HELL DO YOU CARE?

OMEGA 1 ANSWER: I AM THE TEAM LEADER. I MUST ENSURE THAT THOSE I COMMAND ARE IN THE BEST OF CONDITIONS.

ALPHA 8 DERISIVE: YEAH RIGHT. I READ YOUR PROFILE, I SAW THOSE REPORTS. YOU PURPOSEFULLY SENT YOUR TEAM INTO A SUICIDE SITUATION, AND KILLED THE SURVIVORS YOURSELF. IN AN 'EXERCISE'.

OMEGA 1 EXPLANATION: I WAS THE FIRST OF THE LAST, AND I EXPECTED NOTHING LESS THAN PERFECTION FROM MY TEAM. THEY WERE NOT PERFECT. THEY WERE UNFIT. I PURGED THEM.

ALPHA 8 QUERY: THEN WHAT ABOUT US, EH? WHAT ABOUT US, THOSE WHO WERE DEEMED THE MOST FLAWED OF ALL?

OMEGA 1 DERISIVE: WHAT DO YOU THINK THIS MISSION IS? DESPITE ALL THE WORK, ALL THE TECHNOLOGY THEY PUT INTO US, WE ARE EXPENDABLE AND ARE BEING EXPENDED ON THIS MISSION. NO MATTER WHETHER WE PAINT THE PLANT RED WITH THE BLOOD OF COORDINATORS, OR DIE IN THE OPENING SHOTS OF BATTLE. THEY HAVE WHAT THEY NEED FROM US. THEY JUST PICKED THE FOUR WITH THE MOST BLOODLUST AND INSANITY TO UNLEASH ON THEIR TARGETS, AND SENT ME, THE SUICIDE COMMANDER, TO MAKE SURE YOU GET THE JOB DONE.

..........

OMEGA 1 CONJECTURE: I FIND SOMETHING CURIOUS ABOUT THIS SITUATION THOUGH.

ALPHA 8 QUERY: WHAT?

OMEGA 1 CONTINUATION: THE LAST OF THE FIRST, AND THE FIRST OF THE LAST......I WONDER IF THEY PLANNED THIS SOMEHOW. THE MADDEST OF US ALL, WITH THE MOST COLDLY LOGICAL. IT ALMOST SEEMS POETIC.

THETA 9: WH4T TH3 H3LL 4R3 Y0U TW0 T4LK1NG 4B0UT?

OMEGA 1 HOSTILE: IF YOU CAN'T COMMUNICATE IN A NORMAL MANNER, PLEASE BE SILENT. YOUR SPEECH STRESSES MY RECOGNITION SOFTWARE TO ITS LIMITS.

THETA 9: 5HUT TH3 H3LL UP N00B.

ALPHA 8 DERISIVE: HE DOESN'T UNDERSTAND YOU. THE THETA LINE'S PROCESSING CAPABILITIES ARE DEVOTED TO THE FIRING OF THEIR LARGE WEAPONRY, DOWN TO THE SHORT-TERM MEMORY OF THEIR ORGANIC COMPONENTS. IF YOU'D LIKE, I COULD GET RID OF HIM NOW.....

OMEGA 1 DISMISSAL: NO, WE CAN'T RISK LOSING YOU AS WELL. DESPITE THE ABJECT PLEASURE I WOULD FEEL WITH THETA 9'S DEMISE, LOSING YOU DUE TO A TRAJECTORY ERROR MADE AT THIS POINT WOULD RUIN MY TACTICAL PLANS.

THETA 9: WH4T 4R3 Y0U 54Y1NG?

OMEGA 1 EXPLANATION: YOU'RE EXPENDABLE, THETA. NOW SHUT UP.

GAMMA 4: WHY _DOES_ HE TALK LIKE THAT? AND HOW COME NONE OF US ARE SIMILAR? I THOUGH THEY WANTED SUPER-SOLDIERS, NOT WANNA-BE SCRAP HEAPS.

OMEGA 1 EXPLANATION: THE ALPHA LINE WAS THE FIRST, AND THEIR DESIGN WAS STRESSED TO THE LIMIT OF THE TECHNOLOGY THEY HAD TO WORK WITH AT THAT TIME, INCORPORATING ALL THAT THEY HAD. LINES BETA THROUGH PSI ARE DERIVATIVES, STRESSING ASPECTS OF MODERN WARFARE. FOR EXAMPLE, YOUR LINE, GAMMA 4, IS DEVOTED TO MEDIUM RANGE COMBAT, WHILE OMICRON 6'S IS FOCUSED ON PSYCHOLOGICAL WARFARE.

OMICRON 6 QUERY: AND WHAT OF YOURS OMEGA 1? WHAT IS THE OMEGA LINE'S PURPOSE?

OMEGA 1 ANSWER: MY LINE IS AN...... EVOLUTION, ON ALPHA'S PURPOSE. A COMBINATION OF ALL OF THE DEVELOPMENT THEY SPENT ON ALL TWENTY-FIVE PREVIOUS LINES, TO SEE JUST HOW FAR THEY'D MADE IT, AND HOW FAR THEY COULD PUSH THE LIMIT, TO CREATE A VIABLE MASS-PRODUCTION PROTOTYPE.

ALPHA 8 QUERY: AND DID THEY SUCCEED?

OMEGA 1 ANSWER: ALMOST. THERE WAS ONE FLAW. THEIR LEADER WAS FAR TOO INTELLIGENT FOR THEIR TASTES.

- Quis est a Iuguolo nisi a Iuguolo? -

Shoki Team was, compared to most standard military fire teams, terribly impatient. Only Captain Shimizu, callsign 'Shepherd', had anything resembling a normal person's reserve of patience, and that was because he specialized in long range marksmanship and sniping.

"How much longer Captain?" Boris, who'd picked the name 'Topor', or axe, moaned. Topor was infamous for his happy trigger finger, and will to exercise it.

"Dojin, time?" Gary asked.

"One minute, fifteen seconds left Shoki Team." The Dojin's Captain, another old SpecOps veteran by the name of Emile O'Clery, replied.

" I don't suppose you have anything that could entertain us, could you?" Gary asked hopefully.

"I'll link in the feed from the bugs." O'Clery replied, motioning to the systems officer. A second later, an aged, hostile voice they recognized as Patrick Zala's flowed through the intercom system, and the OMU's comms network.

"- And where is Lacus Clyne? She was supposed to return with Orb's demands!"

"I believe I can answer that Patrick." The similarly aged, but much more benevolent voice of Siegel Clyne said. "You see, we have learned something rather troubling from Orb.....about Operation Uroboros."

"The Neutron Jammer drop? What of it?"

"You see, your department previously delivered a report that the cumulative effects of the operation would deal any significant damage and casualties to the Earth Alliances _military_, and that there would be little damage to civilians."

"Yes, and?"

"Lacus received a contradictory report from Orb. According to census and collected news reports, Operation Uroboros has caused the deaths of _over a billion civilians!_" Siegel's voice rose to a low shout. "Let me clarify. Due to effects of the lack of nuclear power that are so numerous it would take a week for us to even begin to define them, over fourteen percent of the human race died!"

"They were Naturals!" Patrick roared in reply. "In order for Coordinators, any at all, to survive, they must be purged!"

"....You've gone mad." Siegel declared coldly. "Guards, arrest Patrick Zala for various war crimes."

"....I see what this is." Zala started, voice low but rising. "You're using me as a scapegoat. A placebo to the Naturals. Well, it won't work. All the guards here are-"

"Shoki Team, that's our cue." Karl said over the comms, sounding more than a little pleased. "Captain O'Clery, fire the Ryuuzaken."

"Aye sir. Crew, rotate ship 90 degrees port, target launchers on Supreme Council building. Increase Ryuuzaken Colloid coating by 175% to deal with increased electronic activity, and increase nano-constructor coating by a factor of five. Set auto-deconstruct to commence five seconds after package departure."

In his pod, Boris started chanting in Russian.

"What is he doing?" Karl asked.

"Oh yeah, you weren't part of the Akuma SWP development team, were you Major?" Gary said. "Well, among us SpecOpsIntel teams and Akuma testers, the Ryuuzaken are known as prayers in a can."

"Why?"

"Because in one of the tests, a trooper got smashed against the side of Mount Everest, when he was supposed to land in Australia."

"Aw, shit."

- Quis est a Iuguolo nisi a Iuguolo? -

A/N: Did this story suddenly become unpopular or something? Read and Review people!

("I told you. Insane people don't attract, they repel")

REBUTTAL: SILENCE, WORM

("Alright, alright. Sheesh, no need to get your boxers in a twist.")

To clarify: Since the Bloody Valentine War began a lot earlier in this story, my Patty Zala is a lot more advanced in his nuttiness than canon Patrick. And he's gonna get worse.

Also, to keep any confusion about Shoki Team away, here's a list.

Captain Gary Shimizu, Callsign Shepherd, team leader and Designated Marksman  
1st Lieutenant Boris Vladimirovich Malakhov, Callsign Topor (Axe), Second-in-command and heavy weapons specialist  
2nd Lieutenant Kuro Akatsuki, Callsign Chiyu (Cure), Medical Officer  
Sergeant-Major John Spartan (S-117 Halo reference) , Callsign Mjolnir, Rapid Assault and Close-Combat Specialist  
Sergeant-Major Lilou de Couteau, Callsign Surin (Dagger), Commando and Infiltration Specialist

Also, for the titles of this and the following two or three chapters, add the previous chapter's title, A Departure From... to the beginning of the title.

00virtuezero: Well, all by itself, it would be a mere annoyance. Throw in the BCPU Gundams, Lena's Samyaza, and Sariels brand-spankin' new Agares though....  
Draw.


	39. Phase 24: Normality, Part 2

Gundam Seed: Killer's Realm

Phase 24: Normality, Part 2

**Outer PLANT Defense Network  
February 20th, 71 CE  
1328 Hours**

Captain of the very first Dojin-Class ship, Emile O'Clery had served in dozens of special operations over his twenty-year service.

This one, however, would undoubtedly prove to be one of the most memorable.

"Target Odoroki 1 at the metapolymer armor above the Supreme Council building, charge medium-yield positron blast. Ready to deactivate Mirage Colloid stealth field and fire simultaneously on my mark, followed by Ryuuzaken launch and stealth field reactivation." He barked, voice booming over bridge and intercom.

Inside his Ryuuzaken SOEIV, the members of Shoki Team made their peace in whatever way they could, excepting Gary, who was an immovable atheist. Karl just grinned.

"Mark!" For an instant, the Dojin was revealed, a vague cross between the ZAFT Nasca-class cruiser and the OMNI Drake-class escort ship colored a solid iridescent blue-gold color. In that instant, it fired the forward-most of the 'Odoroki' 150cm Dual-Purpose Positron Beam/Hyper Velocity Linear Cannons mounted on its dorsal survace, a slight white glare of positron-ambient matter interaction following the tightly condensed anti-matter projectile as it impacted on the twenty-meter thick shell of Aprilius One, annihilating the top nineteen meters of metapolymer armor.

Even before the gamma radiation burst from the annihilation reaction faded, six of the port-side SOEIV Gauss Launchers fired, sending six Ryuuzaken pods roaring (figuratively speaking) down through the last meter of metapolymer. Their outer coating of magnetically-adhered Mirage Colloid gas was scraped off, along with the 1mm thick layer of nanomachines, which quickly reconstructed the metapolymer in the wake of the pods.

**PLANT Aprilius One, Supreme Council Building  
February 20th, 71 CE  
1329 Hours**

"Guards!" Patrick bellowed, waving to the ZAFT guards around the room. They responded quickly, ZAMAS assault rifles coming up and aiming at Clyne and his supporters. "As you know, the punishment for treason is, and has always been death! NOW! FI-"

He was interrupted by an almighty CRUNCH coming from the roof, and the structure smashed inwards, allowing six large glossy blue-black dart-like pods to crash into the floor, monoatomic tips easily piercing the reinforced concrete. For a second, everyone, Radical and Loyalist, just stared at them. Then, with a hiss of depressurizing air, sections of their hull slid out and up, revealing shadowed spaces inside.

What stepped out frightened all of them.

From the lead pod, it was a silvery behemoth with a lion's skull for a head, while the other five were deep black monsters with skulls for faces.

Then a mechanically distorted voice issued from the silvery one with the lion skull, the being raising its shotgun-like weapon.

"It's Party Time!"

Without any ceremony, one of the black-armored ones lifted a strange weapon, a long-barreled gun with a foregrip, and some kind of computerized sight that was as large as a holographic sight, but instead of leaving one end open for the eye to see through, it curved down back to the gun's body. Just holding it by his hip, the beast unleashed a full-on automatic blast. The curious thing was, there were no gunshots. Or even muzzle flares. Not even the coughing sound of a silencer. And despite the hip-shooting, a firing position that had been derided for ages exponentially longer than theirs, he was perfectly accurate. The rest of the team of soldiers opened up as well, slaughtering most of the guards, with only Patrick's personal guards getting him - and themselves - out of the line of fire.

One rather imbalanced guard rushed them, charging straight for the silver one. It aimed the shotgun right at his legs, and fired, rendering them into bones with scraps of flesh attached, somewhat protected by the body armor.

What was terrifying for everyone, even their allies, however, was merely satisfactory for Shoki Team. Well, most of them.

"You see Topor? Steady as the Earth." Gary said smugly.

"Shut it Shepherd." Boris grumbled. He now owed his leader. _Never should have taken that bet_.

"Pardon me?" Gary shot back, his face almost matching his helmet's grin.

"Shut it, _Sir_."

"Alright, alright, no need to get snappy you two." Karl cut in, joining in the fun. Currently, he wasn't even using his shotgun, just his LMX 14.7mm Linear Magnum, the smallest linear weapon to use Hyper-Acceleration Technology. The 14.7x47.2mm tungsten carbide cored solid copper boat tailed hollow point - more simply called Lance - rounds it fired were a version of the same round the LMG Izanagi fired, and pretty much left anyone it shot in the face without a head, as attested by the ZAFT guard corpses lying about with only a lower jaw.

Gary had set his Izanagi to three-round burst, firing 7.62x51mm Lances. Due to the smaller size, and less mass, the 7.62 Lances had somewhat better range than the massive 14.7mm ones, so he had assigned himself to the hostiles on the outer edge of the building. By the time all of the Radical ZAFT guards were dead or fled, the room was completely emptied of everyone except for Karl, Shoki Team, and the Loyalists.

Karl marched up to Siegel Clyne, bowing his head in respect.

"Chairman Clyne, I am Major Karlton William Hertz," He was gratified to see a flash of recognition in Siegel's eyes, "and I am here on orders from Major General Andrew Victor Payne and Chief Representative Uzumi Nara Athha to escort you to the ZSS Gamow and take you and the rest of the Loyalists to the L4 facility."

"Thank you Major." Clyne said, nodding. "And who are these?"

"Special Operations and Intelligence Team Shoki." Karl replied. "No more questions right now though, we should get a move on." He motioned to Gary. "Shepherd, get your team moving, I want you on a high-rise in twenty minutes with a SitRep ready for transmit over the Network. I want a count of everyone and everything with a weapon, from rocks to high-powered anti-material rifles, you read me?"

"Yes sir." Gary nodded. "Topor, take temporary command. I'm going to that building right there." He said, pointing towards a thousand or so meter tall building.

"How are you going?" Boris asked, noting when Gary detached the assault rifle barrel from his Izanagi.

"14.7 Arbalest." Gary replied, reaching for his hip. Each and every OMU suit produced has eight Nano-tech Adapter/Magnetic Adhesive (NAMA) points all over their body, each capable of holding a piece of equipment up to 50kg in mass. There were two on the hips, two on the shoulder blades, and a total of four on the arms, two on the upper part and two on the forearms. Gary had attached to his right hip NAMA point a 14.7mmx60cm Hyper-Accelerated Barrel, designed to fire even 50kg rounds at speeds exceeding 12 km/s. He also ejected his half-spent box magazine, slotting it back into the 8-magazine container attached on his right upper arm NAMA, taking a similar magazine out of the container on the opposite arm and slamming it into the port with a satisfying click, and a slight humming sound as the Izanagi's barrel capacitors charged.

"Oh shit." Kuro commented. "Shepherd means business."

"I always mean business Chiyu." Gary said.

"This business means that I pass by corpses that are no longer identifiable as human." Kuro retorted.

"Cut the chatter and get a move on." Karl interrupted, now holding his shotgun in his right hand and his magnum in the other. Gary wordlessly set off, low to the ground and running at speeds no human, Natural or Coordinator, could match.

"Chiyu, you're in the rear with the Loyalists. If they get hurt, give them a spray of Nanites." Boris started. "Surin, your at the sides with Mjolnir. Me and Mr. Hurtz will take point." The team quickly moved into their positions and set off, black and silver-armored Orb troops surrounding Loyalist ZAFT guards protecting Loyalist PLANT Supreme Council members. None of Shoki Team could be bothered to tell who was who, and Karl was too busy keeping an eye out.

The group moved into the streets quickly, sending civilians fleeing in terror while policeman stood their with their jaws gaping. Boris activated his speakers.

"You might want to clear out." He broadcasted, startling each and every one in proximity. After maybe two seconds, they followed his advice.

Not five minutes later, ZAFT ground infantry was moving towards them, flitting in and out of cover behind cars, buildings, and the odd street sign. Then they started firing.

The ZAFT Armaments Modular Assault System was a good weapon. Bullpup configuration, magnetized sight attachment rail over the barrel plus secondary weapon attachment rail under the barrel, automatic and burst fire, corded HUD link, and chambered for 5.56mm steel/tungsten alloy penetrator rounds, it was ahead of most of OMNI Enforcers small arms.

With the OMU, it didn't cut it. For fun, Karl just stood in the middle of the street, letting them plug away at his armor. Due to the special control interface, a less advanced one compared to the one used in the Tetsujin Mobile Suit, Karl could sorta _feel_ the rounds impact, almost like rain on his skin. After maybe twenty seconds of that, he advanced, Boris, Lilou and John having closed up shoulder-to-shoulder with him to fully protect the more vulnerable Loyalists behind them.

Upon closing within ten meters of the nearest ZAFT team, Karl levered the gauss shotgun and fired. A cloud of 5mm-long tungsten darts and 1mm-diameter steel ball bearings along with pre-loaded spall flew out towards the team, traveling at more than twenty times the speed of sound. The soldiers, as well as the car they were taking cover behind, were ripped into by the varied ordnance, losing limbs and having holes of various sizes and shapes blasted into them. It was only by virtue of their heavy armor that they weren't reduced to bits of fragmented bone and torn flesh.

"Damn, if Morgenroete doesn't make the best weapons...." Karl trailed off, with Shoki Team nodding around him.

"Shepherd to Mr. Hurtz, I'm in position." Gary called.

"Good, what do you see?"

"It's a lovely day, the sun is shining bright, and there are soldiers running around the city."

"Cut the crap."

"The street in front of you is lined with infantry, and they're bringing up ZIFVs from the garrison. I've also spotted some with portable missile launchers and high-powered rifles." Gary reported, perched atop the high-rise. "Want directions?"

"Yes." Karl said.

"Proceed ten meters down the road and take the next intersection left. There's only a company of infantry there, and only about ten of them have any threatening weapons."

"Only a company he says." Boris muttered.

"You're perfectly welcome to take on the mechanized infantry division forming up right in front of you Topor. I'll just sit here and watch as you get ripped to shreds by the ZIFVs' autocannons." Gary mocked.

"Hey! Eyes on the prize Shoki Team." Karl reprimanded, shooting a trooper who got a little close for his taste. The shotgun blast from two meters disintegrated his torso, sending arms, head, and lower body flying. "Topor, Mjolnir, suppressing fire."

"Yessir!" Came the stereo reply. They moved forward of the group, Boris emptying the remnants of his nearly-depleted drum magazine before reloading and letting John take up the slack, the Rapid Assault specialist's 7.62x51mm armor-piercing, fin-stabilized discarding sabot phosphorus-coated tungsten carbide 'Asp' rounds riddling those foolish enough to stick any part of their body out of cover with heated armor-piercing bullets. Actually, since they also penetrated the cars the ZAFT soldiers were hiding behind, they pretty much killed anyone he shot at.

By the time Boris slapped in a new magazine, this one loaded with 14.7mm 'Halberd' rounds, steel versions of the 'Lance', most of them within twenty meters were dead. This, of course, didn't stop him from spraying those forty meters down the street with a liberal dose of magnetically-accelerated titanium carbide-cored steel.

- Quis est a Iuguolo nisi a Iuguolo? -

IMPACT IN 3.....2......1......

With a crunch of hardened polymer and condensed hybrid metal matrix armor, five objects impacted all over the surface of Aprilius One, averaging one thousand fifty meters away from each other, revealed when the thermal stealth fiber-cloths covering them floated away, before igniting in a spontaneous combustion. Then they unfolded, turning from sharply angled spheres into two to three-meter tall humanoid machines. All shared similar features, from the visor that curved from the edges of their faces into a point about where a man's nose would be, to the clawed manipulators ending each arm.

OMEGA 1 COMMENT: THEY FORGOT TO MENTION THE FACT THAT THE 'GLASS' IS ACTUALLY HIGH-DENSITY TRANSPARENT ARMOR POLYMER.

ALPHA 8 CHALLENGE: TWO TERABYTES OF PORN SAYS THE STEALTH CLOAKS DIDN'T WORK AND THEY KNOW WE'RE HERE.

OMEGA 1 REPLY: YOU ARE SO CRUDE. DEAL.

GAMMA 4: I'M IN.

ALPHA 8 REBUTTAL: FUCK NO YOU PEDOPHILE.

GAMMA 4: AW.

OMEGA 1 COMMAND: ENOUGH. ARGONAUTS, GATHER ON MY SIGNAL.

The machines moved across the surface of the PLANT, unnoticed by those beneath. One was more heavy-set than the others, with spike-like parts on the backs of its calves, shotguns on its arms and cannons protruding over the shoulders. Another had gatling guns placed on its forearms, wider feet and a mortar on its shoulder. The third had a mass of fangs carved into its face under the visor, a sniper rifle on the forearm, with a flamethrower on the opposite arm. Its shoulders were occupied by rocket launchers

OMEGA 1 COMMAND: ALPHA, CARVE OUT AN ENTRANCE.

The smallest one of them, a blocky 2.35 meter-tall machine with long, sharp-tipped claws holding what had once been a heavy machine gun, now removed of its stock and standard grip, instead attached to ones resembling a large assault rifle, nodded and angled his torso towards the polymer surface. Two blades extended from each forearm, a meter long, before slashing down twice. There was a rush of air, before the first three machines jumped into the make-shift entrance. Then the PLANT's emergency systems came into action, spraying quick-solidifying cement into the rushing air flow. The material stuck to Alpha 8 and Omega 1's surfaces, quickly sealing to them and impeding their joint function.

Until they did the equivalent of a flex, cracking the cement off. The fragments slid off of Omega 1, a three-meter tall machine with curved surfaces, a 20mm cannon of some sort on his right shoulder, a two-meter blade extended from his right forearm, and a 9mm rifle on his left.

All around them, the ZAFT mechanized infantry division had been forming up to deal with Shoki team and the Clyne Loyalists stared.

ALPHA 8 EXULTATION: HAH! PAY UP.

OMEGA 1 RESIGNED: FINE.

TRANSFERRING DATA FILE: 'XXX 1-5', 2 TERABYTES.  
TRANSFERRING......  
TRANSFERRING......  
TRANSFERRING......  
TRANSFER COMPLETE

OMEGA 1 WARNING: DON'T STARE TOO LONG OR YOUR CIRCUITS WILL FRY

THETA 9: 1 5M45H!

The bulky Argonaut, Theta 9, leaned back, the spikes in its calves extending out and firing into the ground, securing it. The cannons targeted two 'ZIFV' Infantry Fighting Vehicles and fired, the HEAP shells penetrating the armor and exploding inside the crew compartment even as the arm-mounted shotguns fired, shredding five soldiers in front.

A second later, Gamma 4 shrugged, a slight twitch in the shoulders, before opening fire as well, the twin tri-barreled gatling guns firing death in the form of 7.62 full-metal jacket hollow-point rounds, riddling ZAFT soldiers with bullet holes. Alpha 8's action was more direct, and very effective, the right arm's dual monomolecular claws reaching out to snag a soldier, tearing him in two from shoulder to hip before the left limb's machine gun opened fire. Then it paused, startled.

ALPHA 8 STARTLED: THIS.......THIS IS YAOI!

OMEGA 1 SMUG: OF COURSE. MANY WOMEN LIKE IT, MYSELF INCLUDED.

...........

Not party to Alpha 8 and Omega 1's private and revealing conversation, Omicron 6 opened fire....literally, the oxygenated magnesium-phosphide-enhanced napalm spewing out to burn ZAFT soldiers, even melting through ZIFV armor to ignite ammunition. The sniper rifle on its right arm began to track soldiers at greater distances, barking once in a while to send a 13mm steel round blasting into their skulls. At that point, the former death-row inmate's emotions matched those displayed by the fanged grin carved onto its face.

- Quis est a Iuguolo nisi a Iuguolo? -

"What the fuck!?" Gary whispered, the feed from his Izanagi's extended range guncam transmitted directly to his OMU, which in turn relayed the data directly through his nervous system to his brain.

"What? What's going on?" Came Karl's voice.

"Linking the feed to you." After a second, the same sights that Gary saw was displayed in Picture-In-Picture windows on the HUD of Shoki Team's OMUs, beamed directly onto their eyes by low-powered lasers and holo-emitters.

The feed showed five centurion-like machines rampaging among the ruins of the mechanized infantry division Gary had seen earlier, shooting indiscriminately and destroying everything in sight.

"Yob Tvoyu Maht!" Boris swore. "They're slaughtering everyone!"

"And they're none of our concern." Karl said coldly, "Don't tell the Council, or any of the other PLANTs people. Just get a move on."

"Yes sir." Shoki Team chorused.

"Mjolnir, I want you to set up anti-tank mines as we go along."

"Yessir."

"Shepherd, keep an eye on those.....machines. If they get anywhere near us, eliminate them."

"Alright."

Wordlessly, the OMU-suited Orb troops increased their pace, forcing the Loyalists to jog a bit to keep up.

They didn't even make it two meters before they ran into a patrol of Radical ZAFT troops. Quite literally so in Karl's case, when his heavy armored bulk smashed into the lighter trooper and sent him crashing through the polymer wall of a Starbucks.

One particularly unfortunate soldier came close to Lilou, without seeing her. In moments, she drew her combat knife, a 30 centimeter-long high-compressed monomolecular sharp blade of monocrystalline titanium carbon nitride with oscillators built into its core. The moment the knife left contact with its sheath, the oscillators began vibrating it at inordinately high frequencies. Lilou held it like a pickaxe, the blade jabbing straight down from the heel of her hand before stabbing the ZAFT soldier next to her in the stomach before moving behind him and stabbing backward, the knife angled to pierce his skull.

John's method of dealing with the patrol was less fancy, messier, and a heck of a lot more efficient. He grabbed a 20mm grenade out of the container attached to his hip NAMA point, hit one of over a dozen buttons built into its base, and dropped it into the mouth of the Gauss Launcher attached to the underside of his Izanagi's rifle barrel. This was one of a few very special grenades, using what was called H.E.M.P.E.R.V.Y.N.E.C.D, a combination of chemicals that was ordinarily about as dangerous as charcoal. However, when charged by an internal Gamma-ray laser, it became explosive proportionate to the charge. In this case, John had it on an extremely high setting.

Thus, when he pulled the launcher's trigger, the grenade was fired at sonic speed into the remainder of th e ten-man patrol, before exploding like a hundred-pound bomb, rendering the soldier it impacted on into tiny flying bits and sending the rest flying.

- Quis est a Iuguolo nisi a Iuguolo? -

The sound of an explosion drew the attention of all the Argonauts, even the dim-witted Theta 9, who immediately targeted his cannons on the area, his advanced sonic location and radar-imaging sensors locating the point. Mere seconds after the explosion, Theta 9 fired a salvo of six HE shells into the area, covering a 10-meter diameter zone of death.


	40. Phase 25: Normality, Part 3

Gundam Seed: Killer's Realm

Phase 25: Normality, Part 3

**PLANT Aprilius One  
February 20th, 71 CE  
1341 Hours**

"Hah!" John crowed, pumping a fist in victory over the shattered remains of the patrol. "Take that you limp dicks!" A few meters behind him, the council members and the two Redcoats started picking themselves back up, recovering from the explosion's pressure wave. Lilou leaned over and rapped him sharply on the helmet.

"Yo! Buckethead! VIPs!" She shouted, pointing at the council members, "Grenade!" She gestured to the crimson blot that was once a Radical. Mjolnir glanced back and forth before muttering a small "sorry".

Then six shells landed at the impact point of John's grenade and exploded, this time bowling over even the OMU troopers. Cursing to himself, Karl shouted into his mic.

"Shepherd! What the hell was that?"

"One of those machines, the one with cannons mounted on its shoulders, fired a six-shot salvo into your area. Right now, the rest of them are also making their way over to you." Gary replied, keeping his sight on the shortest one, the one with the rifle-like machine gun and the claws. It moved less like some kind of arthritic old man as the others and more like some feral beast, its movements actually feline somehow. It reminded him of someone......

"Shit! Time?" Karl asked, all the while motioning for Shoki Team to keep on alert and on the move.

"The closest one is about a twenty seconds away judging by its speed. It's got what looks like a mortar on the right shoulder and two gatling guns on the arms." Gary reported. "You want me to get rid of it?"

"No, concentrate on the artillery one, that one's dangerous. I'll deal with this one myself." Karl growled back. He temporarily accessed Gary's guncam feed, oriented himself to the right, and aimed his shotgun at the Starbucks through which he'd slammed a Radical soldier. Not five seconds later, a hulking machine smashed through the wall, gatling guns spooling up. Karl fired immediately, the cloud of various ordnances blasting into the machine's right leg. Despite its earlier performance against the cover of the ZAFT troopers, Karl's gauss shotgun didn't penetrate the machine's armor, although said armor was quite shredded on the outermost layer. Likewise, the twin seventy-round bursts of 7.62 full-metal jacket rounds the hostile fired into Karl's chest merely scratched away some of the silver laminate of his OMU.

- Quis est a Iuguolo nisi a Iuguolo? -

GAMMA 4: OMEGA, I HAVE SOME RATHER UNIQUE TARGETS HERE.

OMEGA 1 COMMAND: REPORT NUMBER AND ARMAMENTS.

GAMMA 4: NO MORE THAN FIVE COMBATANTS AND SIX NONCOMS, AND THE COMBATANTS HAVE SOME KIND OF SPECIAL ARMOR. MY GATLING GUNS ARE UNABLE TO PENETRATE, AND THEY APPARENTLY HAVE LINEAR WEAPONS.

OMEGA 1 QUERY: HOW DO YOU FIGURE THAT?

GAMMA 4: 'CAUSE THE FIRST BLAST FROM ONE'S SHOTGUN JUST SHREDDED MY FIRST AND SECOND ARMOR LAYERS.

OMEGA 1 COMMAND: HOLD THEM THERE. OMICRON 6 AND ALPHA 8 ARE CLOSING IN, AND I WILL BE ALONG SHORTLY.

GAMMA 4: WHAT ABOUT THETA 9?

OMEGA 1 EXASPERATED: HE'S DEACTIVATED HIS COMMUNICATION MATRIX.

Alpha 8 was racing along the rooftops, easily leaping the differences in the heights with the nano-filament-enhanced human musculature of his legs while keeping track of his position via the use of several stealth micro-satellites scattered in and around the PLANT. He was almost jealous of the Omega line.

ALPHA 8 INFORM/QUERY: ETA 69 SECONDS, QUERY FURTHER INFORMATION.

GAMMA 4: DESIGNATED TARGETS 1-5. COMBATANT ARMAMENTS TARGET 1: 1 X GAUSS SHOTGUN, 1 X LARGE-CALIBER LINEAR MAGNUM; TARGET 2: 1 X LINEAR LIGHT MACHINE GUN; TARGET 3: 1 X LINEAR ASSAULT RIFLE/GAUSS GRENADE LAUNCHER ATTACHMENT; TARGET 4: 1 X LINEAR SUB-MACHINE GUN, 1 X UNKNOWN MODEL COMBAT KNIFE; TARGET 5: 1 X LINEAR ASSAULT CARBINE/GAUSS SHOTGUN ATTACHMENT. TARGET DISPOSITIONS: GAMMA 4 ENGAGING TARGET 1+4, TARGETS 2,3,5 GUARDING NONCOMBATANT TARGETS.

Alpha 8 readied to leap over the roof of the Starbucks, just when a flash of blue-white slammed into his side, melting through three of his eight layers of armor and temporarily degrading his control over his cardiovascular and respiratory functions. He erased and rewrote the scrambled control protocols within five milliseconds before turning and utilizing the macro-camera mounted in his forehead to glare at the projectile's originating point.

ALPHA 8 INFORM: DESIGNATE TARGET 6, ARMAMENTS: 1 X SNIPER RIFLE OF UNKNOWN TYPE, POSITION: 1.2KM ALTITUDE, 2M 'WEST', 239M 'SOUTH', REQUEST ARTILLERY OR RIFLE SUPPORT.

OMICRON 6: ACKNOWLEDGED.

Only twenty meters away from the Argonauts' original entry point, Omicron 6 pivoted in the burning corpses of his victim to angle his sniper rifle at the point Alpha 8 designated, utilizing the original line machine's coordinate graph instead of his. Behind him, Theta 9 had noticed his action and tied his own targeting system into Omicron 6's, elevating his shoulder cannons a few degrees and modifying the psychological warfare model's calculations to match his artillery.

The two cyborgs fired simultaneously, the rifle round's path arcing slightly while the cannons shells had a far more ballistic arc, but still aimed for the same building.

- Quis est a Iuguolo nisi a Iuguolo? -

Gary was completely caught off-guard when a large-caliber sniper rifle round pinged off of his helmet, and even more so when twin HE cannon shells blasted him entirely off of the skyscraper that he'd taken position on, sending him falling the kilometer to the ground. Thankfully, the OMU was designed for such events, with a monocrystalline titanium carbide armor layer and underlying ferro-silicate impact gel layer and even the nanofilament and electroactive polymer-based propulsion layer all providing defense against the forces involved in falling a kilometer down after being hit by high explosives.

It still hurt when he smashed onto the condensed concrete sidewalk.

"Owwww..." Gary grated, feeling his aching ribs and pushing himself back up. Thanks to the low-powered beacon in the guncam, he quickly recovered his Izanagi before he moved towards his team and Karl, as well as the VIPs. He barely made it five meters before one of the cyborgs appeared before him, rounding a corner. It was the advanced one, the one with the blade on its right arm, the rifle on its left arm, and the small cannon on its right shoulder.

"Aw shit." He muttered. Barely before Gary finished his curse, the machine turned its rifle on him, firing 9mm depleted uranium bullets semiautomatic. None of them pierced the OMU's armor layer, but they packed quite a punch. After emptying a dozen rounds into Gary's chest, the robot stopped for a second, cocking its head to the side before lowering its rifle arm. Then it flourished its right arm, extending a long blade and in the process slicing the roof off of a car.

Gary hesitated slightly, as a result almost losing his head when the machine attacked suddenly with a horizontal swipe at his neck. He ducked and backpedaled at the same time, raising his rifle to snap off a random shot into the robot's knee. The 'Arbalest' was a round inspired by the thermesium shells of the Kuro Tenshi Augury's Kamikaze Railgun. It was constructed mainly of refrigerated ammonium/thermesium gas, with a core of compressed depleted uranium, and was designed to penetrate even meter-thick titanium ship hulls.

Which meant that the armor on these machines was stupidly dense, seeing as the round had only inconvenienced the one now chasing Gary up the side of a building instead of severely crippling it. The Captain had quite literally leaped up to the roof of a two-story building on the street he'd crashed into, followed in a similar fashion by the blade-wielding robot. Judging by how it had sliced through the car, and now sliced through a part of the roof, Gary would guess that the blade was monomolecular-edged and super-dense.

- Quis est a Iuguolo nisi a Iuguolo? -

Despite the Extended Natural Research Division's stubborn attempts at chemical lobotomy of the Tau through Omega Lines' emotional centers, Omega 1 still felt a large degree of irritation at this strange new enemy, as well as her/its creators. The nerds had promised that only anti-mobile suit artillery or mobile-suit scale weaponry would be able to penetrate the Argonaut's multi-layered armor, which consisted mainly of a titanium carbide/meitnerium alloy created by super-compressing melted titanium and meitnerium at a specialized Lagrange 1 facility.

This also induced a sense of caution in Omega 1, such that she/it wouldn't dare take on this one alone.

OMEGA 1 ORDER: OMICRON 6, PROCEED TO MY POSITION TO ELIMINATE TARGET 6: UNRESTRICTED METHODS, PREPARE FOR EXTENDED COMBAT AND RAISE DAMAGE POTENTIAL OF TARGETS TO MOBILE SUIT-SCALE.

OMICRON 6: MOBILE SUIT-SCALE? WHAT THE HELL ARE THEY?

ALPHA 8 OFFER: A TEN-GIGABYTE ECSTASY PROGRAM SAYS ORB.

OMEGA 1 REBUTTAL: YOU ALREADY GOT MY PORN.

ALPHA 8 REBUTTAL: AND IT WAS DISGUSTING.

Mentally shaking her/its head, Omega 1 continued pursuing the cybernetic/nano-modified/power armored or whatever target across the rooftops, noting that its course took it straight to its comrades.

OMEGA 1 ORDER: GAMMA 4, REPORT.

GAMMA 4: STILL ENGAGED WITH TARGETS 1 + 4. TARGETS 2, 3 AND 5 PROCEEDING WITH NONCOM TARGETS TOWARDS 'EASTERN' ZAFT SPACE DOCKS.

OMEGA 1 PLAN: MICRO-SATELLITE SCANS INDICATE HOSTILE DIVISION-STRENGTH FORMATION DEPLOYING AROUND DOCKS. THETA 9, PROCEED TO POINT DESIGNATED WAYPOINT 9 TO BEGIN INTERCEPT MOVEMENT.

THETA 9: WHY 5H0ULD 1?

OMEGA 1 EXASPERATED: BECAUSE IF YOU DON'T, I'LL ACTIVATE THAT HANDY SELF-DESTRUCT MECHANISM IMPLANTED IN YOUR NEURO-CONTAINER.

THETA 9:..........

Distracted, Omega 1 only barely caught the sight of Target 6 aiming its sniper rifle over its shoulder and it by mere millimeters, the super-heated projectile raising the surface temperature of Omega's head armor enough to send its heat sensors into a warning screech. Omega 1 clamped down on them, silencing the electronic shriek as it retaliated with its cannon.

An experimental weapon developed specifically with the Omega Line in mind, the 20mm Gauss Cannon utilized super-dense electromagnetic coils to fire a slug of solid compressed depleted uranium at eight times the speed of sound. The projectile's impact had possessed enough force to overpower the ballistic gels of the Argonauts, and Omega had no reason to expect the Targets had anything similar. Yet, a nagging in the back of her/its mind that she/it at described as 'women's intuition' said that the Gauss Cannon was the best chance any of the Argonauts had to defeat these new foes.

- Quis est a Iuguolo nisi a Iuguolo? -

Karl cursed the ancestor of everything - going so far back to prehistory - that had contributed to the creation of this thing he was fighting. It moved like a recording of an arthritic old man sped up 2x, but it was very precise, if a bit inexperienced in close combat. Apparently, most of its experience was in gatling-gun range, and wasn't especially suited for hand-to-hand combat with a shotgun-wielding veteran and a knife-wielding pseudo-assassin.

"Surin, go behind him and take out his legs. I'll blast his head off." Karl ordered, maneuvering out of arm's reach of the cyborg and peppering it on the chest with a load of armor-piercing heated tungsten darts, having exchanged his previous drum magazine for one of his more specialized ones.

"Yessir." Lilou muttered, moving quickly. She skipped around the side of the robot, then leaped onto its right shoulder, rebounded off of the remaining wall of the Starbucks and landed lightly behind the enemy machine, oscillating monomolecular knife ready. She sliced in at the right leg, cutting into it just behind the knee joint before maneuvering the blade to cut down and then out, severing what muscle there was. Surprisingly, there was a jet of red blood - or something similar - along with some clear substance and a blackish oily liquid. Nevertheless, she achieved the intended effect, sending the machine stumbling.

Karl reversed his course, darting in between the cyborg's extended arms and aimed his weapon straight at the head. He fired, the tungsten darts slicing through several layers of armor at such close range, completely destroying the visor and telephoto camera and blasting through the interior circuitry and wiring, before penetrating all but the last two layers of armor in the back of the head.

The force sent the machines head rocking back and, combined with Lilou's previous hamstringing of it, sent its two-ton bulk to the ground.

But, even before they had a chance to celebrate the minor victory, _another_ one leaped in from the side, over their heads and on top of Kuro, more than seventy meters away with the Loyalists. In one hand it held a machine gun, and from the other arm, twin jagged claw-blades jerked out of small sheaths built directly into its forearms, before the limb arced over and down, directly for Kuro's neck.

Faster than thought, the medic's free arm darted in the space between the blades and grabbed the fist on the end of the arm, stopping the deadly-looking blades a bare two centimeters away from his helmet. He quickly lifted his Carbine-barrel Izanagi, firing into the machine's torso.

- Quis est a Iuguolo nisi a Iuguolo? -

Alpha 8 was particularly irritated by the hundred rounds fired into his/its chest in less than five seconds, each piercing through a half-layer of armor, with the last one lodging uncomfortably close to the Neuro-Container deep in his/its chest that contained his/its original brain.

ALPHA 8 QUERY: GAMMA 4, CONDITION

GAMMA 4: FUCK!!!!! I'M BLIND AND DEAF, THEY BLEW MY HEAD APART!

ALPHA 8 COMMAND: CALM DOWN AND ACTIVATE YOUR SECONDARY SENSORS.

GAMMA 4: RRRRRRRRRRR!!

To the surprise of the two Targets that had been engaging him/it, Gamma 4 rose back up to his/its wide feet, setting them apart before pressing his right gatling gun into the back of the silver Target while the other gun rotated to aim at the sneaky one with the knife. To their credit, they dodged the guns with inhuman speed, although even then the silver one got nicked good, the rounds sending him spinning to the ground. Gamma 4's fatal mistake was ignoring the sneaky Target, when it hacked at his/its right arm with its knife, slicing the limb off at the elbow with three good slices. Then it jammed its knife into Gamma's remaining intact knee joint, before drawing another one and stabbing it into his/its chest and drawing the blade down, cutting him/it open heart to groin.

The silver Target had holstered its shotgun, got up and inserted its hands into the gap. Impossibly, with strength on the level of the Argonauts, it pulled the gap open a few centimeters before quickly drawing its shotgun and jamming the barrel to the gap. At an automatic rate of fire, it ripped off several blasts from the shotgun. Apparently, the shotgun's rounds entered the gap and spread throughout Gamma's chest cavity, tearing open the Neuro-Container and leaking brain matter and fluid as well as ripping apart the circuitry, which sent arcs of electricity sparking throughout the cavity, cooking Gamma's brain.

GAMMA 4 AUTO-REPORT FUNCTION: BRAIN FUNCTION DETERIORATED, CEASING CARDIOVASCULAR AND RESPIRATORY FUNCTION CONTROL. ANALYSIS........SUBJECT GAMMA 4 DECEASED.

ALPHA 8 COMMENT: SHIT.

At that moment, Target 2, the somewhat bulky one with the light machine gun, actually bull-rushed Alpha 8, shoving him off of the other Target and into a building. The wall crumbled as his/its weight and force crushed the polymer, and further deformed when Alpha pushed him/itself out of the newly-created wall crater before he/it glanced at the two Targets facing it.

ALPHA 8 REPORT: TARGET 2 PROTECTING TARGET 5. TARGET 5 THUS DESIGNATED IMPORTANT TEAM MEMBER. EITHER LEADER OR OTHER. LEADER TARGET 1. DESIGNATE TARGET 5 OTHER (MEDIC). FOCUSING PRIMARY TARGET ATTENTION ON TARGET 5, SECONDARY ATTENTION TARGET 2. RECOMMEND OMEGA 1 AND OMICRON 6 ENGAGE TARGETS 1 AND 3 AFTER ELIMINATING TARGET 6.

- Quis est a Iuguolo nisi a Iuguolo? -

Gary swore when the freaky one with the madly grinning mass of fangs under its visor leaped onto the roof he was heading toward, rifle and rocket launchers aimed even as the more advanced-looking one levered its cannon at him. The fanged machine fired first, just as Gary ducked, with the sniper round pinging off of the advanced machine's chest armor while it dodged the rockets. Gary rolled off of the roof, landed on his feet, and then sprinted up the street, heading towards where Karl and Lilou had just destroyed that other machine.

He'd also gotten a pretty good tip from Karl.

When the scary one leaped up, angled to land right on his back, Gary ducked and rolled again to the right, letting it land with a THUMP on the tortured paved road. Unfortunately, it had the presence of mind - or computer - to have its flamethrower pre-aimed, allowing it to blast Gary with a jet of superheated napalm fires. Which Gary ignored, instead grabbing its arm, pulling, and sending his feet to its head. With that done, he moved his upper body along the arm, climbing onto the robot's shoulders, and righted himself so that his was standing somewhat unsteadily on top of the cyborg's head.

Just as the other machine of the pair landed in front of Gary and his unwilling mount, the SpecOpsIntel Captain jammed his Izanagi one-handed into the top of the fanged one's head, and fired four times in succession. The first Arbalest round melted halfway through the thick and dense head armor, with the second one penetrating the rest and entering the machine's skull. The third one blasted through the minimal interior armor in the neck, and the fourth one took advantage of this and exited along the third round's route, eventually exiting out its groin.

The machine toppled like a puppet with its strings cut off, to the (from Gary's point of view) askance look of its comrade. Gary hopped off before the freaky machine's remains toppled, landing in front of the other machine. A rather stupid move, he later said and all agreed.

However, the remaining machine reacted quickly, levered its shoulder cannon at Gary, and fired. Looking back on this through his OMU's recording, Gary would watch the scene frame-by-frame and make out the thick cannonball of the depleted uranium shell. At the moment, he just saw a slivery flicker before an inordinately large force impacted on his shoulder and spun him three meters back, before he landed on his chest, having spun about 1800 degrees.

Before he could begin to reorder his confused mind, the robot apparently stepped on his back, pressing down with great force, enough to drive Gary into the concrete. It wasn't enough force to begin to bend the OMU's armor, but he still felt it, to an extent. Really, it was more uncomfortable than anything.

"Uh, a little help here?" Gary called.

"Coming." Karl said jauntily.

Out of nowhere, Lilou attacked the advanced machine, knife flickering in towards its chest. However, this one seemed to have learned from the deaths of its comrades, its two-meter blade flicking out in a disdainful motion to deflect the knife blade. It then paused, studying the new centimeter-long nick in its own blade. At that moment, Karl came up and kicked the cyborg in the back, hard enough to send it stumbling, before pressing his shotgun into its center back.

There was then a neat trick, where the robot completely reversed the orientation of its cannon and fired a shell at Karl. Mr. Hurtz managed to do what Gary had not and ducked, but thus allowed the machine to escape with a sideways leap into a building. Lilou and Gary made to go after it, but stopped at Karl's shake of his head.

"Ignore that one, we've got Topor and Chiyu dealing with the feral one near the VIPs, and the Dojin's contacted us. Apparently, there's a large contingent of Radical troops surrounding the spaceport. Luckily for the Gamow, they weren't fast enough to catch it before it detached from the dock and joined the Dojin, but as for us....."

"We're screwed." Lilou said.

"Weeellllll, not really." Karl said. "Our exit plan merely got a little more complicated. Gary, how far are we from the PLANT's outer wall, in terms of travel time?"

"Just a minute or so with the VIPs sir." Gary answered. "But let's get rid of that other machine first, eh?" Without so much as a nod, they went from 0 to 30 in less than a second and sprinted up the street, seeing Boris quite literally wrestling with the clawed machine, barely keeping its blades away from his head. Kuro was circling around the pair, interjecting the conflict with bursts of Carbine fire, and the occasional blast from the undermounted gauss shotgun. However, the carbine barrel didn't really manage to penetrate the heavy armor, and the attached gauss shotgun had much less firepower than Karl's hand-held one, so he really just pock-marked the machine's skin.

Then the impossible happened.

The machine smacked Boris in the side of the head with its light machine gun, throwing the heavy Russian aside like a rock, dropped the weapon, and reached out for Kuro, grabbing the medic at the shoulder while two new blades jerked out of their respective sheaths on its left forearm.

- Quis est a Iuguolo nisi a Iuguolo? -

Mentally grinning, Alpha 8 set into the Target, slowly but surely flaying away its armor. What did he care if his blades got a little dull? That just made the victim scream more. And unlike the last time he had this Target pinned, there was no comrade in a mortal plight to distract him. Alpha 8 had to give credit to the armor's creators - he still believed this time originated from Orb - it was tough. He couldn't rightly identify the material he sliced off, but his blades were edged with meitnerium, the densest element known to man, and that was before it was artificially compressed and alloyed with titanium nitride. Almost nothing could stop it.

Mere seconds after starting, Alpha hit jackpot, blood flowing as he cut into his Target's stomach. Unfortunately, he couldn't hear a scream, but the flesh shuddered as though in great pain, and that was almost good enough for Alpha. However, the heavy Target had recovered and was already grabbing Alpha's right arm. Disliking the missed opportunity for his favorite game, Alpha finished his Target, a quick upward jab arcing under its - his - ribcage and into his heart, just before the other Target yanked him off of the stilled body. Alpha kicked the Target away and then leaped upward onto a pawnshop's roof, sprinting across it and moving to rejoin Omega and Theta.

- Quis est a Iuguolo nisi a Iuguolo? -

**Two Minutes Earlier**

"I think I have an idea as to how to get us out of here." Karl said, just after dealing with the gatling-gun cyborg.

"And what might that be oh demon thunder?" Captain O'Clery queried, rubbing his brow. The good Major wasn't known as the most stable employee of General Payne.

Karl grinned crazily at that, and said. "Damn thee accursed whale! By the depths of Hell I stabbeth thee!"

"I had no idea you had any interest in classic literature, much less that you were literate." O'Clery commented. That particular quote had been said by Captain Ahab in the famous story _Moby Dick_.

"Ah go suck one up your blow hole." Karl retorted.

**Now**

"I'm probably only the second person to ever contemplate anything like this in space warfare." Emile shuddered, remembering the Paimon, the Berial-class OMNI Enforcer destroyer that had rammed Junius Seven and set off its nuclear reactor. "All hands, brace for impact! Helm, ramming speed!" The Dojin accelerated, Pulsed Inductive Plasma Thrusters glaring as the stealth ship discarded its cloak of invisibility for this action.

The Dojin angled straight for Aprilius One's 'Eastern' wall, just a few hundred meters down away from the Spaceport. "Fire Odoroki 1 and 2, low-energy positron burst!" The cannons flared, sending two streaks of anti-matter blasting into the metapolymer wall, disintegrating an almost fifteen meter square area, cutting it down to five-meters thick.

Then the Dojin crashed into - and through it. Most ships would have crumpled against the superhard pseudo-armor (with the notable exception of the asteroid-sized Berial-Class Destroyers) but the Dojin had an edge. A bow armored with Anti-Phase Shift material, which easily pierced the metapolymer. Even as the bow penetrated the wall, the Dojin was releasing nano-constructors to fit the wall to the hull, preventing any significant atmospheric leaks.

Inside the PLANT, the boarding hatches built into the bow extended and opened, allowing the Loyalist PLANT Council members and, notably, one OMU-suited trooper in first before the rest of the team boarded.

Emile got up from his seat with a smile as the Dojin withdrew from the PLANT, reversing in place before the Positron Pulse Detonation in the stern activated, the gamma burst flaring and revealing the Dojin's position to anything and everything with sensors concentrated in the upper-range of the electromagnetic spectrum. Not that they would be able to intercept the ship, the combination of Pulsed Inductive Thrusters (more efficient and powerful than any normal-sized Electrostatic Thruster currently used by most modern military ships) and a more-stable and larger iteration of the Shadowfax's PPDE allowing the Dojin to by-far outrun any pursuers.

On their course, they passed the derelict hulks of several Nazca-class cruisers. At first glance, there was nothing wrong with them, but anyone stepping onto the ship itself would immediately notice the distinct lack of air and pressure. The Dojin's Monkouken 40mm 5-barrel Hyper-Velocity CIWS, normally used defensively as with most CIWS weapons, actually could fire its relatively minuscule rounds at velocities fast enough to very easily pierce the hull of most ships, creating hundreds if not thousands of leaks.

Emile walked off of the bridge and proceeded to the hold, where the bow hatches exited to, ready to congratulate Shoki Team. Opening the door, he opened his mouth, before his jaw dropped upon the sight.

Of Kuro's blood-covered torso, and the gaping cavity exposing the lower ribs and stomach.

They were silent.

- Quis est a Iuguolo nisi a Iuguolo? -

Author's Note: And thus ends the Departure From Normality chapters. The sweet of the victory, with the bitter of the loss of a comrade. It's sad.

("Awwww....and I liked Kuro!")

Are you.....crying blood?

("I had a baby earlier.")

You're a robot! And a guy! you can't have - oh......that's disturbing.

Anyway, sorry for missing last week's update. I was sick. To make up for it, I'll have a tech chapter up soon.

Replies:

nequam-tenshi: Latin.

Velshard: Thanks.  
Well, actually, there are a total of three casualties, with Theta 9's fate to be revealed in a flashback, along with some info that may disturb Alpha and Omega.....or not.  
Highly-compressed.  
Do tell.

Mathiasosx: hope you liked it.

00virtuezero: Well, BCPU yes (literally, their brains are the central processing units for the machine) but nano-tech, not quite. OMNI wasted all of the nano-tech they reverse-engineered on the project that spawned Jack as we know him.  
Currently, 2 out of 5. Although that depends on if you consider the rest of the Argonaut population, which will be revealed in the tech chapter (for those who can add)

Knightmare Gundam of Ni


	41. Technical File 05

Gundam Seed: Killer's Realm

File 05

**CI-Y001**

_Argonaut_

Unit Type: Anti-Infantry Assault Cybernetic Organism

Manufacturer: OMNI Enforcer Extended Natural Research Division (OMNI Enforcer ENRD)

Operator: OMNI Enforcer ENRD

Height: 2-3.5 Meters

Weight: 2-3 Metric Tons

Armor: Outer Layer Titanium Carbide/Beryllium Meitneride Super-Compressed Alloy, Inner Layer Infantry-Grade Compressed Boron Nitride Nanomesh

Power Source: 2 x High-Capacity Batteries  
1 x Superinsulated High-Capacity Battery

Propulsion: High-Strength Nano-Scale Electroactive Polymer Musculature/Nanofilament-Enhanced Organic Musculature

Operating System: Joint Auto-command Systemic Organic Neural-net

Special Systems: Automated System Hacking  
Independent Injection System

Equipment and Design Features: Infrared Targeting System  
Highly Modifiable Frame  
Scanning Targeting Camera Visor  
Biological Central Processing Unit  
Low-Friction Joint Coating  
Tachyon Command Link  
Ballistic Shield (Optional)

Fixed Armaments (Optional): 6-barrel Arm-Mounted 7.62mm Gatling Gun  
Arm-Mounted 13mm Sniper Rifle  
Arm-Mounted Shotgun  
Arm-Mounted 30mm Grenade Launcher  
Shoulder-Mounted 50mm Rocket Launcher  
Shoulder-Mounted 25mm Cannon  
Shoulder-Mounted 150mm Mini-Howitzer  
Shoulder-Mounted 3-barrel 20mm Autocannon  
Shoulder-Mounted 100mm Mortar  
Shoulder-Mounted 20mm Experimental Gauss Gun

Model Lines: Alpha - Proof-of-Concept Prototype Models, 1-8  
Beta - Guerrilla/Anti-Infantry Warfare Models, 1-4  
Gamma - Medium Range Warfare, 1-5  
Delta - Mobile Electronic Warfare Model, 1-2  
Epsilon - Close-Combat/Urban Warfare Model, 1-12  
Zeta - Anti-Air Platform Model, 1-3  
Eta - Lightweight Aerial Insertion Model, 1-5  
Theta - Advanced Medium-Long Range Artillery Model, 1-11  
Iota - Anti-Tank Warfare Model, 1-4  
Kappa - Amphibious Warfare Model, 1-15  
Lamba - Anti-Mobile Weapon Warfare Model, 1-21  
Mu - Drone Operator Model, 1-3  
Nu - Space Infiltration Model, 1-6  
Xi - Sabotage and Base Infiltration Model, 1-6  
Omicron - Psychological Warfare Model, 1-13  
Pi - Chemical Warfare Model, 1-9  
Rho - Deep-Space Scout Model, 1-2  
Sigma - Kamikaze Model, 1-57  
Tau - Long-Range Assassination Model, 1-32  
Upsilon - Viral Electronics Model, 1-4  
Phi - Tachyon Detection Model, 1-2  
Chi - Mobile Weapon Hijack Model, 1-37  
Psi - High-Tech Close Combat Infiltrator/Assassination Model, 1-26  
Omega - High-Tech Experimental Test Model, 1-8

Bio: A part of the Biological Central Processing Unit program, Argonauts are Naturals that were inducted into the program after physical maturity, eliminating any chance of becoming even slightly resistant to the side-effects of Gamma Glipheptin, rendering them more vulnerable to the drug than their younger mobile-suit piloting counterparts. So, the 'highs' of the drug become shorter and the 'lows' even more painful.

In order to counteract this, Argonauts are fitted with cybernetic attachements that regularly administer doses of Gamma Glpheptin, varying the doses according to metabolic rate, adrenaline production, and heart rate, thus increasing dosage in combat to induce more satisfactory results. Along with this were other chemical auto-injectors, including artificial adrenaline, red blood cells, and pain medication. Integrated sensors monitored the biological condition and controlled the injectors, separate from the subject itself.

In the Argonaut sub-program, subjects are altered in various ways, ranging from biochemical modifications to increase adrenaline output, to the integration of carbon and iron nanofilaments to the skeletal-muscular system. These pave the way for more drastic alterations, including micro-circuitry extensions to the nervous systems, and the replacement of the epidermis with a high-density ballistic fiber armor coated with ferrofluid.  
From that point on, the augmentations become more and more advanced, until the Argonaut becomes a two-meter tall cybernetic engine of destruction.

in its final iteration, the average Argonaut weights just over two metric tons, and is armored from head-to-toe in metal matrix composite plates and ballistic gel structures. Most of the armor is made of a brand-new Titanium Carbide alloyed with Meitnerium, making it essentially invulnerable to even armor-piercing small arms rounds. Generally, the original brain of the Argonaut is actually encased in the torso, behind layers of heavy armor and still-living flesh and bone, while a new sensory system in a robotic head, a humanoid one consisting of a multi-camera strip at eye level below a long-range telescoping camera, with variable sensitivity audio sensors on either side.

Rather than have the Argonauts use standard small arms, new weapons designed to attach directly onto forearm and shoulder hardpoints were designed, allowing the Argonaut to keep its manipulators free for the unlikely prospect of hand-to-hand combat. An optional equipment is the ballistic shield, which is capable of blocking armor-piercing rounds from a .50-caliber rifle. The basic forearm-mounted weapons are generally modified versions of small arms used by infantry, or lightened variants of vehicle-grade armaments. The shoulders are reserved for high-weight or heavily energy-intensive weapons, counting among their number missile launchers and micro-howitzers.

Each Argonaut line is specialized for a specific aspect of modern warfare, excluding the Alpha and Omega lines, which were generalizations incorporating the most advanced technology at the time. As such, while the general armor and internal structure of each Argonaut was essentially the same, modifications and external additions kept each line somewhat unique. Despite their status as test units and thus carrying a certain stigma of unreliability, some lines were used in actual military operations. For example, the Kappa line was used to great extent and attacked numerous ZAFT submersible carriers throughout the Atlantic Ocean, and the Beta and Tau lines proved instrumental in subjugating the United States of South America. Of course, their roles in these went entirely unreported by the Earth Alliance, and a mandate to kill all uncleared personnel met in combat helped preserve the Argonauts' secrecy.

However, perhaps due to the practice of kidnapping subjects to use, a percentage of the Argonauts became extremely unstable in psychological terms, as a combination of the Gamma Glipheptin exposure and other augmentations. Indeed, the majority of the Sigma line fit this description perfectly. Most of said failures were disposed of immediately, although a few were kept around for study, or merely went undetected for a long amount of time, prime examples being Alpha 8 and Omega 1, which also showed a slight correlation in armament outfit among the insane.

In the case of Alpha 8, the most advanced model of the Alpha line, he/it has high-density titanium claws attached to his/its forearms, two to each limb, and uses a modified light machine gun instead of shoulder-mounted weapons in order to keep a light weight. Omega 1 functions similarly, excepting the addition of an experimental 20mm Gauss Cannon to its right shoulder mount and a high-velocity caseless rifle on its left arm, and exchanges the right-arm claws for a single two-meter titanium meitneride blade. Both models preferred light and fast close-range combat, and studies of the other insane models revealed proportionately close-ranged outfits.  
Gamma 4 used a mortar instead of the standard autocannon used by the rest of Gamma Line, Theta 9 used short-barreled cannons instead of the micro-howitzers preferred by his line, and Omicron 6 discarded the gatling gun the Omicron Line frequently utilized in favor for a flamethrower.

Development of the next version of cybernetic infantry is already in development, although the most promising design is the CI-004 Myrmidon, expected to begin developmental testing in later 71 CE and limited production in late 72 CE.

Original Mechanical Designer: _**Knightmare Gundam of Ni**_  
Modified By: _**Velshard**_

_STIEC-Y01 (Stealth Troop Insertion & Extraction Craft-prototYpe)_

**Dojin**

Ships Of The Line: 1/many x production series later built

Unit Type: Hybrid Transatmospheric Light Assault Ship

Manufacturer: Morgenroete Conglomerate Inc.

Operators: Orb Union (Special Operations and Intelligence)

First Deployment: N/A

Dimensions: Height: 40 meters; Breadth: 165 Meters; Beam: 25-60 Meters

Displacement: 14,650 Metric tons

Crew: Bridge 10  
Engineering/general staff 50

Maximum Troop Capacity: 180 x Shock Troopers or 90 x Heavy Powered Armor Corps

Armor materials: Laminated Hybrid Hyper Alloy Composite

Power Source: Combined Uninterruptible Power System, incorporates 2 x Pulsed Helium-3 Plasma Fusion-Reactor (80,000kw output each), many x Hydrogen fuel-cell, many x S2 engines supplementing all systems, Solar Energy System

Propulsion: 1 x Combined Solar Sail/Energy Collector  
1 x Positron Pulse Detonation Engine  
8 x Small Thrust Vectoring Pulsed Inductive Plasma Engine  
Many x Emergency Maneuvering Plasma Pulse Detonation Engines  
Many x Repulsor Drive Clusters

Special Systems: SCAI-Net (Strategic Command Artificial Intelligence Network);  
AICA (A.I. Combat Assistant);  
ASC (AIRAD Slave Controller)  
Mirage Colloid Field Control System  
Magnetic Colloid Sail/Miniature Magnetosphere Generation System

Equipment and Design Features: Anti-PS Ramming Bow  
Advanced Omni-directional Sensor Suite  
1 x Anti-Matter Generator  
Many x "Ryuuzaken" Single Occupant Exoatmospheric Insertion Vehicle (SOEIV)  
Liquid Colloid Stealth Layer  
Tachyon Quantum Communications  
Super-Cooling Temperature Regulation  
30 x SOEIV Gauss Launcher

Fixed Armaments: 3 x "Odoroki" 150cm Dual-Purpose Positron Beam/Hyper Velocity Linear Cannon  
6 x "Rakurai" MK.I 30cm Variable Density Hyper Beam Assault Cannon  
2 x "Donki" Strategic Missile Launcher, fires various large payload missiles (limited capacity)  
4 x "Fukurou" All-Purpose Stealth Missile Launcher, uses quantum warhead smart missiles  
4 x "Monkouken" 40mm 5-barrel Hyper-Velocity CIWS  
4 x "Hirameku" High & Low Energy Pulsed Laser Arrays

Mobile Weapons: 6 x MAF-US1 Tengu

Bio: Developed in the 'Akuma' Special Weapons Program, the Dojin-class is an experimental stealth troop carrier design meant to be Orb's SpecOps, OMU, and Shock Troopers' primary space transport. The Dojin's design is an eclectic mix of a stealth frigate/dropship/troop carrier, causing it to leave standard classification and being labeled as a new type of ship in-line with many Orb designs, hence it's broad designation as a light assault ship. Being a stealth vessel it is equipped with a Mirage Colloid Stealth Field System, essentially a ship sized version of the Noctoraptor's Mirage Colloid, though initially plans had been made to outfit the Dojin with a Light-Wave Phase Shift coating this was discarded in favor of a proven technology. The Dojin also incorporates a modified version of the as-yet-incomplete Agrona's MagCol Sail system for stealth operation in Earth Orbit. In terms of armor the Dojin essentially possesses a quintuple thick version of the armor used in Orb's Tetsujin mobile suits giving it tremendous survivability and the ability to reenter the Earth's atmosphere. Also, on top of the armor layer, the Dojin-class has a layer of black radar-absorbent nanomesh filled with Mirage Colloid particles, enhancing its stealth features. As a side bonus this nanomesh Mirage colloid layer acts to disperse the energy from beam weapons so should the Dojin come under fire it can actually take more than one direct hit from a battleship class beam weapon to any section of its armor without it being compromised. One failing of the massive Mirage Colloid system is an inordinately large spike created in EM wavelengths that create an excessive amount of "noise" across various sensor and communication systems. Particularly any type of radio array involved in communications or detecting ambient environmental radiation have a tendency to go a little nuts as though being jammed when the stealthed Dojin is nearby.

Primary power is supplied by a smaller version of the Neo-Izumo class's combined power system that makes the Dojin extremely hard to knock out even when what would normally be critically important primary and secondary systems are disabled. In order to defeat thermal sensors, the primary method of long-range space detection, the Dojin-classes utilize a combination of a Negative Ion Laser super-cooling temperature regulation system, in the same vein as that on Orb's flagship model MS. And a much more passive water ammonia cooling system that naturally functions on waste heat that effectively makes the ship a part of the stellar background. The primary propulsion is supplied by eight small Thrust Vectoring Pulsed Inductive Plasma Thrusters that are designed to give the Dojin maximum maneuverability, stealth, and thrust. The engines' small size makes their emissions easier to cool as they are vented and their total combined output gives the Dojin the thrust to nearly outrun a Nazca Class Cruiser. The engines are arranged in staggered groupings of four on the port and starboard sides of the Dojin's main PPDE just aft of the Dojin's stern Hirameku laser defense arrays to direct their thrust in ways that allow the Dojin exceedingly agile maneuvers. The Dojin-class is also equipped with a more stable iteration of the Shadowfax's Positron Pulse Detonation Engine, which increases average speed by about 250% giving it the thrust to keep up with even Orb's Kagero class Heavy Interceptors. Also, in 'black' missions away from the Earth's magnetosphere, the transport can use Solar Sails to move without emission. Arrayed across the ship are strategically placed plasma pulse detonation engines designed for the sole purpose of pulling emergency maneuvers, such as dodging a direct hit from a battleship class energy weapon or simply making insanely high speed course corrections through something such as the debris field.

As a troop carrier, the Dojin-class also has several ways to deliver and extract the troops it carries: one being the Ryuuzaken (Dragon's Dart) Single Occupant Exoatmospheric Insertion Vehicle (SOEIV) alternatively referred to as a 'drop pod' or a 'prayer in a can'. Each Dojin-class light assault ship carries 180, which are fired from 30 specialized electromagnetic launchers on the ship's port and starboard flarings, with fifteen on either side. The pods are essentially heavily armored dart-like capsules with integrated Magnetic Repulsor systems and Solar Sail/Parachutes in order to slow the pod for trans-atmospheric descents. They are made of several layers of both Mono-crystalline Titanium/Divinium hybrid composites and hyperdiamond, with an outer layer made of magnetized copper/silicon. The outer layer is intended to allow the Mirage Colloid gas charge fired along with the pod to adhere to it, effectively making the pods invisible to both sight and radar. Each pod is made to be as indestructible as possible, not only for the safety of the soldier inside, but so it can be recovered and re-used. However, in the case of either failure or imminent capture, it is also equipped with a nanomachine self-deconstruction system analogous to the Tetsujins'. The Ryuuzaken can be used for space-ground infiltrations, space-station boarding, or ship-ship boarding actions, in the latter two cases sprayed with a layer of initially inert nano-constructors to seal the breach caused by the pod's breaking through the hull of the station/ship.

Assisting in its ability to extract personnel from hostile areas the Dojin Class are fully independent Transatmospheric vehicles capable of entering the Earth's atmosphere at dangerous high velocity steep angles. The Dojin incorporate both landing struts and powerful Repulsor Drive Clusters into their design allowing them to land in either the ocean or solid ground and hover over the earth's surface with ease in order to rapidly recover troops and operatives. The combined lift from the Repulsors and thrust from its main engines means that the Dojin can reach low earth orbit (about 160km)within a span of a few minutes while leaving none the wiser it was there and gone.

Another alternate insertion/extraction method is the use of the Dojin's six special purpose Tengu UCAVs, these Tengus have been specially modified with their own independent Mirage Colloid systems and can be equipped with up to 9 personnel recovery pods that can carry up to 5 OMU in them apiece. The Tengu can also be equipped with devices for the rapid recovery of the Dojin's Ryuuzaken SOEIVs; each device can be attached to one of the Tengu's nine major external hard points. The recovery devices can each recover 2 drop pods via the use of guided electromagnetic anchors attached to retractable cables allowing the a single Tengu to snatch up 18 SOEIVs at a time while remaining completely stealthed. The Dojin's six Tengu dock to the dorsal surface of the ship with 1 each fore and aft of the bridge and on the port and starboard sides of those two are their sister units docked to the flarings just fore and aft of the Hirameku laser arrays. Primarily the Tengu serve as defense fighters for the Dojin and as air support/drop ships for troops during surface operations but they are also employed tactically as distractions to draw attention away from the main point of conflict.

Perhaps the bluntest method the Dojin has for placing boots on, or in this case, in a target, is to simply ram them with the Dojin's bow. The bow's of Dojin class ships are tipped with Anti-Phase Shift armor along with all of the leading edges being made from it, creating super hard and super sharp spike. The bow itself has multiple boarding hatches that retract into the Dojin and the ship can also release Nano-constructors of its own to seal the gaps made as a result of impact at least temporarily. The use of this method is usually only done in Emergencies though, or when the lives of VIPs are at risk and minimizing their exposure to attack is the most important thing. The most memorable occurrence of this is when the original Dojin was used to smash into PLANT Aprilius 1 to recover sympathetic members of the PLANT Supreme Council after Shoki team was pinned down and cut off from their original escape.

In terms of the Dojin Classes' armaments the ship carries a plethora of primarily defensive/first strike weapons that are meant for only some ship to ship combat with vessels of a similar weight class. Looking at the outside of the ship though the Dojin doesn't appear to be armed at all nor have any hidden gun emplacements since in order to preserve it's stealth even without Mirage Colloid all of its armaments are retractable or camouflaged into the ships surface. Against Nazca Class and Agamemnon Class Capital ships and their escorts, the Dojin is simply out matched in size, armaments, and mobile weapons, hence why it's primary defense is stealth and speed. That is not to say the ship isn't capable of slugging it out with capital ships when it's necessary or completely decimating some of ZAFT and OMNI's weaker war ships but it will only stay and fight when absolutely necessary such as to recover Orb loyalists.

Because of the Dojin Classes' Positron Pulse Detonation Engine each Dojin has its own anti-matter generator, though they are relatively small ones with a separate electromagnetic Positron storage unit. As a rule anti-matter generators create a great deal of excess matter and energy which mostly goes to waste and has to be vented out of the ship while the anti-matter generator is active. Because of this the Dojin's anti-matter generators can never be used when their trying to be stealthy or they stand out like a sore thumb on most sensor systems, meaning that anti-matter has to be created and stored well before an operation begins. This leaves the Dojin with a fairly limited supply though still a generous amount to operate it's PPDE. However one of the Dojin's most powerful weapons are its three Odoroki 150cm Dual-Purpose Positron Beam/Hyper Velocity Linear Cannons. Odoroki literally means "Surprise" and these three dorsally mounted cannons are all capable of delivering one helluva sucker punch to the unsuspecting opponent, each cannon auto calibrates to fire a blast of positrons at just the right density and velocity to cause maximum damage to a warship. Positrons are channeled to the Odoroki via tributaries from the Positron storage unit but due to a limited amount of Positrons these cannons can only fire 4 times each at the most before they empty the storage unit. And because of the time it takes for an anti-matter generator to create more positrons in a combat situation the Dojin has to make these shots count while still retaining enough Positrons to operate its PPDE.  
Uniquely though the Odoroki is also a Hyper Velocity Linear cannon, the same electromagnets used to pinch and control the positrons as they are fed into the Odoroki's barrel are also used to fire its solid ammunition. The Odoroki in linear cannon form can fire two basic types of ammo, the first being very simply 1.5 meter wide by 1.5 meters long slugs of solid copper with a hardened steel core. These slugs are primarily meant as anti-ship weapons but are also used to smash holes in the surface of ships, space fortresses, colonies, and otherwise solely to provide an insertion point/emergency exit for Orb troops. The slugs can be accelerated to almost 12 kilometers a second meaning that they can rip massive holes through a ship and cause serious structural damage. Although their relatively low mass makes them easy to carry in fairly large numbers their ammunition is still limited in order to conserve space on the ship so they must be used sparingly. The second shell the Odoroki fires is a 1.5 meter by 7.5 meter long cargo round designed to be a onetime use atmospheric reentry device that can carry either extra weapons and equipment for a surface operation. Or more ordinarily the cargo shell carries a self guided 1200kg bunker buster/daisy cutter made from C16 that can be fired from orbit, reenter the Earth's atmosphere, and come down on a predetermined target selected by Orb operatives and troops. Like the copper and steel slugs this particular round is also limited due to it's size meaning it has to be used very strategically for the best possible effect.

The Odoroki are arranged dorsally with two in line with each other on the ship's sloping bow section and one at the stern mounted directly over the top of the PPDE. Mounted in sequence with them ventrally are 6 Rakurai (thunderbolt) MK.I 30cm Variable Density Hyper Beam Assault Cannons. The Rakurai are mounted in pairs, 1 on the port and one on the starboard side of the Dojin's 'keel' to provide a maximum area coverage of fire with four on the bow and two at the stern mounted directly under the PPDE. While the Odoroki was designed for firepower the Rakurai was designed for fire superiority, exchanging great destructive power and a limited number of discharges for moderate destructive power, and unlimited rapid fire. Similar to other Hyper Beam weapons the Rakurai imparts most of its destructive power by increasing the Encapsulated Charged Particle Discharge's muzzle velocity to over 7 kilometers a second making the shots humanly impossible to dodge and a higher likelihood of bypassing anti-beam defenses. The Rakurai also has the ability to auto adjust the density of its particle beams for either greater penetrating power or greater collateral damage, unlike the Odoroki though this cannon serves doubly duty as a defensive and offensive weapon and is mounted on a Sperry-Ball-like turret to easily track highly mobile targets. Because each Rakurai can fire a shot every three quarters of a second, the weapons can deliver a shocking amount of combined firepower on a single target making them ideal for hammering away at enemy ships and forcing some breathing room. Against the defenses of MS and Mobile Armors the Rakurai is particularly effective, capable of literally shattering anti-beam coated shields and completely destroying the MS behind them in a single shot. Another handy capability these weapons have is their incredibly long effective range, capable of engaging ships with much bigger guns than the Dojin has well before they can start shooting back or in reverse keep shooting back at an enemy longer while the Dojin retreats.

The only other major heavy hitting weapon the Dojin possesses are two "Donki" strategic missile launchers on its port and starboard sides located where the ships port and starboard flares slope inward to intersect with the bow section. The name Donki literally means "blunt instrument" or a Blunt weapon, probably implying the weapons near complete lack of finesse or subtlety from the designers' point of view. Though rather humorously due to the similar vernacular of 'Donki' to 'donkey' it became traditional for the ships crews to paint something along the lines of "Hee-Haw Mother Fuckers" along with the image of a wild ass on each missile. Despite being called strategic missile launchers though the Dojin supposedly only carries a few each of what are essentially 'cargo missiles' each large missile is capable of reentering the earth's atmosphere and can carry several different payloads. Like the Ryuuzaken drop pods each cargo missile has an external coating of magnetized copper/silicon that also allows Mirage Colloid gas to adhere to it making each missile mildly stealthy as it approaches a target. Missile payloads consist of a massive combined chaff smoke/EMP bomb that can effectively cover an area 20 kilometers square when less than lethal disruption is necessary. Alternatively it can fire a huge MIRV missile containing both 108 independently targeting 48.5cm compact smart missiles and a 2500kg quantum warhead within the main missile with a variable yield between 12.5-31.25 TNT equivalent tonnes (almost 3 times that of a MOAB). The last missile was apparently designed for use against the populations of colonies though, with the nose assembly equipped with a battery powered beam cutter that allows the missile to drill through the outer hulls of colonies before releasing its payload inside. Supposedly it's payload would consist of one three things, an extremely potent neural agent, a genetically engineered bio-weapon, and most frightening of all a weaponized anti-organism Nanomachine swarm. Rumors also suggest that a Dojin carries two Positron bombs on board that can either be fired from the Odoroki in their linear cannon form or be placed aboard any of the Dojin's strategic missiles just before they are launched. It should be noted that the Dojin's missiles can of course also be used in space and in some ways much more effectively for use during combat operations or as anti-capital ship weapons. One potential danger of using this weapon though, as would later be discovered, is that it is possible to completely destroy a Dojin with one well placed shot from a beam weapon directly into the launch tube just as a missile is being fired, resulting in a lethal contained explosion that will gut the ship, setting off its Fusion reactors and turning the entire vessel and its crew into a multi kiloton detonation of expanding high energy plasma.

Mounted on the lateral lines of the ship's bow and aft sections are four "Fukurou" (owl) All-Purpose Stealth Missile Launchers, the ones on the bow being set between the two Odoroki and Rakurai cannons. The other pair of launchers are located at the point where the aft section of the port and Starboard flares slope back in to intersect with the bow section just forward of the Dojin's stern cannons and just aft of the Hirameku laser arrays. The Fukurou can fire a number of different sized missile warheads, from 16cm micro-missiles to 103cm anti-ship missiles, what makes these missiles truly unique and positively lethal though is their magnetized copper/silicon exteriors. Like the Donki the Fukurou enshrouds itself in a cloak of Mirage Colloid particles as soon as it fires and thanks to a xenon gas ion plasma motor all the missiles it fires are virtually undetectable in flight. This is another of the Dojin's weapons capable of giving nasty sucker punches and reeking utter havoc during a combat operation, usually the Dojin employs these missiles against ships, MS, and fortifications to aid in the disruption of enemy forces as well as using them to directly assist operatives.

The Dojin's final armaments were meant to be mostly defensive in nature such as the Monkouken (gate guardian) 40mm 5-barrel Hyper-Velocity CIWS. This Gatling-style weapon is derived directly from Orb's Roc Type.1 MS based Gatling cannons. This CIWS fires hyper kinetic projectiles with muzzle velocities exceeding 17 kilometers a second making defense and evasion all but pointless for anything but Phase Shift equipped MS. Each hyper kinetic round consists of a jacket made from hyperdiamond and a core of depleted uranium making it capable of even damaging Orb Hyper Alloys to say nothing of regular armor and shields, which it can simply cut through like it's not even there. Four Monkouken are equipped dorsally and ventrally at the center points of the port and starboard flarings between the Hirameku laser arrays and the Tengus surface docking points leaving them in the perfect positions to provide total defensive coverage to the ship. Monkouken are primarily used as anti projectile weapon defenses, be it against missiles or Electromagnetic weapons, capable of even intercepting most shots from low velocity rail guns and linear cannons. But like many of its weapons the Dojin have an alternative way of applying the Monkouken somewhat offensively, a vulnerability of any space borne vessel is the exposure of the ship's crew to vacuum. Dojin will frequently use their Monkouken to waylay enemy ships by riddling them full of hundreds of small atmospheric leaks that equal one serious and potentially fatal problem for a ship's crew.

The Hirameku High & Low Energy Pulsed Laser Arrays are perhaps one of the most ingenious defensive weapons developed in the Cosmic Era's modern battlefield and are designed almost solely for the purpose of neutralizing any weapon system. The most key element for any weapon to work is for it to be able to hit its target, because of N-jammer technology most targeting systems now rely almost solely on Laser Designators. The Hirameku is designed to do 5 things, first is to detect hostile Laser Designators and then extrapolate their point of origin, second is to then fired its own low energy laser directly back at the hostile laser designator, either damaging it or disabling it entirely. Effectively this renders enemy warships and mobile weapons unable to create a firing solution without calculating targeting information manually forcing a ship to either give up the fight or get up close and personal to stand a chance of surviving. An alternate way of applying the Hirameku is to alter the target guidance of in flight missiles either turning them back on the ship that fired them or sending them at hostile ship's own forces. This tactic is especially useful since allies that don't trust each other have little desire to work cooperatively, thus making them easier to kill. The fourth use of the Hirameku is to function as a traditional missile interceptor, switching to a high energy laser to heat the exterior of a missile to the point of ignition/failure. Perhaps the most critical application of the Hirameku though is the disruption and interception of laser communications, after all knowledge is power, and thanks to the use of N-jammers laser communication is now the most prevalent communications method in the Earth Sphere.

The last defensive feature the Dojin and its sister ships possesses is the complete lack of an exposed Flag Bridge, the has no large windows or observation decks relying almost totally on various sensors and cameras to see outside. The Bridge itself is housed deep within the ships core structure well away from most anything that could harm it.

It should be noted though that one issue the Dojin Class has is that its massive Mirage Colloid field renders the ship unable to use any of its energy weapons while it is fully stealthed. The Dojin's Mirage Colloid field is so powerful that in tests it causes it's energy weapons to back fire catastrophically, this has made the development of the Dojin's "solid" armaments all the more important. Obviously though the Dojin is still very much capable of ripping an enemy a new one while remaining veiled in Mirage Colloid with the Odoroki in Linear cannon form, the Monkouken CIWS, or the Donki and Fukurou stealth Missiles. Heck so long as the Dojin remains veiled and it can get the drop on an opponent it's possible for a Dojin to even disable or destroy a celestial class ship.

The Dojin-classes resemble miniature copies of Orb's new Yamato-class battleship, looking like a stealthy cross between a ZAFT Nazca Class cruiser and one of OMNI's 130-meter Drake Class Escort Ships. An overhead view of a Dojin class causes it to resemble a solid iridescent blue gold(a really dark almost black blue) version of ZAFT's Petrie Class land battleships.

**PMU-001**

_OMU (Orb Mobile Uniform)  
_

Unit Type: Performance-enhancing powered armor

Manufacturer: Morgenroete, Inc.

Operator: Orb (Special Operations and Intelligence Combat Teams)

Height: 2.3 Meters

Weight: 0.7 Metric Tons

Armor: Monocrystalline Titanium Nitride/Carbon Hybrid Hyper Alloy/Hyperdiamond  
Underlying Divinium Silicate Ballistic Impact Gel  
Nanomesh-enhanced ultra high molecular weight polyethylene anti-ballistic layer

Power Source: 2 x S2 Engines  
1 x Replaceable Ultra-Efficient Nano-Cell Battery

Propulsion: Ultra-Dense Electroactive Super-Polymer/Elastic Titanium Nanotube Compound Musculature System  
Back-Mounted Solar Sail/Parachute

Operating System: Advanced Dynamic Automated Multiprocessing system (A.D.A.M)

Special Systems: SCAI-Net (Strategic Command Artificial Intelligence Network)  
AICA (A.I. Combat Assistant)  
NCI (Neural Control Interface)

Equipment and Design Features: Direct Retinal Display HUD  
Sat-Net/Squad-Net quantum communication link  
Quantum-based encryption scheme  
Vacuum-Sealed/Pressurized  
Full NBC (Nuclear Biological & Chemical) Protection System  
Advanced Nano-Filter Artificial Respiratory Mechanism  
8 x Nanotech Adapter/Magnetic Adhesive Equipment Holsters  
Multi-Camera Arrays  
Magnetic Resonance Imaging  
3-Dimensional Sonic Imaging  
Back-Mounted Hyper-efficient Solar Recharge System  
Ultra-Magnetic Adhesive Soles  
SQUID-based Control Module

Optional Equipment: 1 x Photosensitive Camouflage Mantle

Optional Hand Armaments: MLWS 'Izanagi' Modular Linear Weapons System  
1 x Hyper-Oscillating Combat Knife  
1 x LP-6R 13mm Linear Pistol  
LM-X Linear Magnum  
GAML-11 130mm Gauss-Assisted Missile Launcher  
GSG-24 8-Gauge Gauss Shotgun  
TLWS-6 Pulsed Tactical Laser Weapon System

Bio: A result of both Jack and Liene's research into robotics and military armor, the Mobile Uniform Powered Armor system was developed May 13, 69 C.E in prototype form, before going numerous tests and in both controlled environments and actual combat exercises before given the green-light for a limited mass-production as the Akuma Special Weapons Project for the Orb Military's Special Operations and Intelligence Teams. The OMU is, for its mass, compact and somewhat form-fitting, designed for comfort and biomechanical efficiency, using an artificial musculature system based on that of humans and other primates to maximize efficiency and power while maintaining user safety.

The OMU's internal musculature consists of Divinium Silicide Electroactive Super-Polymer Fibers and Titanium Carbide nanofilaments, all arranged similar to human and primate muscles. These materials and set-up give the OMU superior mobility and strength as compared to previous powered armor designs, generally amplifying an average human's strength by a factor of 25 or more, while also providing an extra layer of protection against kinetic and energy weapons. The OMU also has a solar sail/parachute in a compartment in the lower half of its backpack module, that can either serve as a solar sail in space or as a parachute in free-fall inside Earth's gravitational pull.

The power system includes a Replaceable Ultra-Efficient Nano-Cell Battery placed close to the suit's spine, with two small S2 Engines enclosed in the OMU's backpack module that are also hooked up to its back-mounted solar recharge system, actually based off of the PLANT's photoelectronic energy systems to a certain degree, although incorporating materials solely of Orb manufacture to increase energy conversion efficiency.

The OMU resembles modern infantry battle armor bulked up to a significant degree, reinforced with monocrystalline composites and high-strength alloys. It's armor consists of an external layer of monocrystalline titanium carbide reinforced with imbricated nano-plates of heterodiamond. Below that is a layer of superpressurized Divinium silicide Aerogel, constructed to neutralize or at least dampen the kinetic energy that accompanies the impact of bullets and other such projectiles. Underneath that, and serving as the 'skin' for the artificial musculature, is a ballistic mesh consisting of an ultra high molecular weight polyethylene interspersed with carbon and beryllium nanofilaments and layered around boron nitride nanomesh. This material is also present underneath the musculature layer. The last and final layer on the internal part is a soft nano-lathed cloth created to allow the OMU wearer maximum comfort while using the suit. The suit's helmet is constructed of solide monocrystalline titanium carbon nitride, with integrated nano-lathed computers allowing for the control of the suit and HUD operation.  
It is completely sealed and pressurized, allowing the wearer to be left in vacuum, the depths of the sea, or extreme altitudes with literally no side-effects. One thing aiding this is a nanotechnology-based filter system enclosed in the helmet. Unlike chemical scrubbers, which use chemical reactions to extract oxygen from the air and/or sea water, the Artificial Respiratory system utilizes small nanomachine colonies to rip apart gas and liquid molecules and rearrange the resulting atoms into a mixed gas matching exactly the composition of Earth's atmosphere, with the system venting toxic and waste materials back out.  
The entire suit is interspersed with monoatomic circuitry, which connects the various devices and mechanisms together to the helmet-based computer, communications, and command systems, as well as the energy systems incorporated into the backpack module.

As a limited-production product, the OMU has been manufactured according to each SpecOpsIntel Team's personal design, the primary example being the skull-headed armor of Shoki Team, led by Gary Shimizu. Shoki Team's armor's outer coloring remains the matte black of 'standard' OMU suits, a result of mechanically roughened nanomesh weave in order to diffuse light further than normal. Shoki Team's skull-shaped helmet is designed for psychological purposes, intended to intimidate and/or horrify opponents. The 'eyesockets' in the helmet in fact contain two cameras and twelve mini-cameras altogether each mini-camera being about one-sixth the size of a human eyeball. Each of the six mini-cameras in each socket are designed to detect a specific wavelength of light, allowing the OMU suit wearer to see in multiple wavelengths simultaneously. The general camera layout is with the main normal-sized camera surrounded by the six mini-cameras.

Karlton William Hughe's custom OMU suit replaces the nanomesh weave with a covering of titanium silver nitride to improve its anti-energy defenses and an actual lion's skull reconstructed around his helmet. Presumably, this is also for purposes of intimidation.

OMU suits have eight hardpoints all over the body, each capable of adhering to and securing up to 50-kg worth of equipment or weaponry. The hardpoints utilize a combination of high-strength magnetic fields and nanotech adapters in order to achieve this and are spread out over the suit, two on the shoulder blades, four on the arms, and two on the hips.

Like the Tetsujin Mobile Suit, and almost all Orb equipment, the OMU uses a nanomachine-based self-deconstruction system that pretty much turns the OMU and the wearer to dust in situations where escape is impossible and help unlikely in the extreme.

In the area of internal systems, the OMU is just as advanced of any other Orb machine. Instead of relying on large projection screens or risking the weakness of a transparent polymer visor, the OMU's HUD is actually beamed directly onto the wearer's eyes via low-energy lasers and holographic emitters on the inside of the helmet, saving much in space and energy while maintaining the safety of the wearer.  
The OMU's control method is actually rather simple, relying on a miniaturized SQUID module set to read the wearer's brainwaves and relay appropriate signals to the musculature, allowing the wearer to move with the same reaction speed as though he wasn't wearing any armor whatsoever. As with the Tetsujin, the SQUID also serves as the security system, scanning brainwaves and comparing them to records. If they do not match, high-energy masers and radiation waves cook the brain of the intruder. The SUID also allows the wearer to 'feel' what the suit feels, as a result of pressures sensitive sensors laid underneath all the armor layers. This allows them to react better to attacks, and judge the velocity and mass of enemy projectiles.

Aside from the multi-camera arrays on the face, the OMU has several other sensors, including a echolocation sonic emitter that reads any and all sound waves, interpreting them and displaying the results as three-dimensional outlines on the HUD, overlapped over infrared and low-light views for easier ID. Certain teams are also outfitted with special or experimental devices, such as Yokai Team's Atmospheric Scanning and Pheromone Detection system, which actually takes in air and scans its molecular content. Or Shoki Team's Magnetic Neurological Detection System, which utilizes MRI-like mechanisms to detect and identify the neurological systems of any living organism. It can also be used offensively, generating high-decibel vibrations to induce severe pain in targets.

Like most Orb mobile units in modern times, the OMU is linked to the rest of the military via the SCAI-Net supercomputer. It also utilizes quantum-encrypted Tachyon/Radio communication, allowing the various SpecOpsIntel teams to communicate without fear of their communications being penetrated.

Overall, the OMU is a force that will define infantry engagements for years to come, dominating them until ZAFT or OMNI develops their own powered armor suits. The only saving grace for Orb's enemies is the expense of manufacturing enough OMU for the entire army limits its deployment to special operations.

**MLWS**

_Izanagi_

Type: Customizable Linear Weapon

Manufacturer: Morgenroete, Inc.

Operator: Orb (Special Operations and Intelligence)

Barrels: 24 cm SMG (4.6mm, 7.62mm variants)  
33cm Carbine (7.62mm only)  
42cm Rifle (7.62mm only)  
51cm Light Machine Gun (7.62mm, 14.7mm variants)  
60cm Hyper-Accelerated Barrel (7.62mm, 14.7mm, 16mm variants)

Sights: Close Combat Guncam (2x Zoom, Laser Range Finder, Multi-Vision Lens)  
Medium Assault Guncam (5x Zoom, Laser Range Finder, Multi-Vision Lens, Attachment Program)  
Extended Range Guncam (5x, 10x, 15x, 20x Zoom; Omnivision Lens, Meteorology Program)

Actions: Semiautomatic, Variable Burst, Automatic

Magazine: Box, 50-100 rounds  
Drum, 400-800rounds

Ranges: 0.9-7 Kilometers

Ammunition: 7.62x51mm solid copper boat tailed hollow point w/ tungsten carbide core slug "Lance"  
7.62x51mm phosphorus-coated tungsten carbide APFDS "Asp"  
7.62x51mm compressed copper/tin frangible slug "Club"  
4.6x30mm solid copper boat tailed hollow point w/ tungsten carbide core slug  
4.6x30mm phosphorus-coated tungsten carbide APFDS  
4.6x30mm compressed copper/tin frangible slug  
14.7x99mm refrigerated ammonium/depleted uranium ionized thermal penetrator "Arbalest"  
14.7x99mm phosphorus-coated tungsten carbide APFDS  
14.7x99mm solid steel boat tailed hollow point w/ tungsten carbide core slug "Halberd"

Attachments: Foregrip  
Bipod  
GAL-2 Gauss-Assisted Launcher  
GSG-9 Gauss Shotgun  
High-Oscillation Bayonet

Bio: Yet another product of the Akuma Special Weapons Program, an off-shoot of the Shuurajou project, the Modular Linear Weapons System (nicknamed Izanagi) is the first limited production infantry-scale magnetic accelerator weapon. It's main feature is its customizability, consisting of a core section that contains the trigger mechanisms, firing mechanisms, and ports for the other parts, the barrel, the stock, and the guncam. The majority of the weapons components are constructed of low-weight beryllium/carbon polymers with only the main trigger and firing mechanisms made out of any conductive materials whatsoever. The Izanagi's internal systems control the magnetic field emmiters inside the firing chamber, regulating them to allow the round to float, thus allowing rounds of any size or shape to be fired.

Each guncam varies in several details, including power, sharpness, zoom, alternate viewing modes, and degree of suit up-link. Standard guncams are the close-combat, medium-assault, and extended range. Barrels vary in length, width and accelerator type, ranging from the simple rifled double-rails of the 24cm SMG barrel to the HALC-inspired 60cm Hyper-Accelerated Barrel (HAB) that utilizes rifled quad-rails and gauss coils. Stocks vary mainly in length and padding, and are collapsible.

The barrels also have a hardpoint on the bottom where either a Gauss-Assisted Launcher or a Gauss Shotgun can be mounted. The GAL-2 can fire anything from various 25mm grenade types to simple magnetized balls. The GSG-9 fires a tight cloud of high-density ball bearings or high-temperature magnesim-tungsten carbide flechettes, depending on user preference. There is also a bayonet blade similar in construction to the OMU's high-oscillation combat knife that can be attached to the hardpoint.

The Izanagi's firing mechanism initializes with a negative electromagnetic pulse from an electrode at the rear of the core section that provides initial acceleration. The pulse attracts the positively charged copper jacket of the rounds inside the magazine, before a polarity reversal switches the charge to negative, wherein the next pulse repels the round. The most common round utilized is a special-made solid copper boat tailed hollow point w/ tungsten carbide core, shaped to expand after impact and penetration, and tested to penetrate heavy metal matrix composite infantry armor far beyond OMNI infantry armor at ranges up exceeding 100 meters with LMG barrel, 50 with assault-class barrels, 25 with SMG barrel, and over two kilometers with HAB barrels. Other ammunition types include APFSDS-type rounds utilizing white phosphorus-coated tungsten carbide darts, rated against light and medium vehicle armor, and a Ionized Thermal Penetrator round made of a depleted uranium core frozen in refrigerated ammonium and thermesium gas.  
The two magazine types available are a compact box magazine and a drum magazine, the former general-purpose while the latter is generally only used with a LMG-configured MLWS. Each magazine contains a micro-S2 Engine, used primarily to power the capacitors used in the barrel's accelerators and electrodes.

As a result of its firing mechanism, the Izanagi has no firing sounds, and has recoil that is eliminated by use with the OMU. Any 'muzzle flashes ' created by the thermal shock of massively compressed gases are eliminated by the barrel pre-venting any gases present in the barrel. However, there is a slight sound of whip-like 'cracks' caused by the round breaking the sound barrier, but is only noticeable when the round passes close to a target and misses.

Being the adaptable weapon it is, the MLWS Izanagi is the main weapon of the OMU-equipped SpecOpsIntel combat teams, usually replaced with other weapons, such as the Huynh Industries-developed TLWS-6 Pulsed Tactical Laser Weapon or the GAML-11 Gauss-Assisted Missile Launcher, in cases where any of the Izanagi's configurations and ammunition is insufficient for the task at hand (for example, either anti-mobile unit or anti-vessel operations.)

- Quis est a Iuguolo nisi a Iuguolo? -

AN: Credit goes to Velshard for the Dojin profile as it is now, including dimensions, weapons, and power/propulsion systems.  
I claim credit for the overall concept though. And the Ryuuzaken (kudos for finding that translation as well Velshard)


	42. Phase 26: Brutality, Part 1

_**Disclaimer and Notes of Ownership:**_ I do not own the Gundam Franchise, or any of the characters from said franchise. If I did, I would probably use the massive fortunes resulting from that to develop real-life mobile suits and conquer the world, with a corresponding level of glee and madness.  
("He actually drew up plans for it last week too.")  
I do however, own all the technical designs labeled with PGAT, XHMA, MMA, XSBF, XABF, PMU, MLWS, CI and SDDGN in their alphanumeric designations, along with a portion of those labeled XGAT. I own Jack Kagizaki's mind, body and soul, as well as those of Captain Gary Shimizu and his Shoki Team. Along with that goes the Abaddons, the Grigori, and good ol' David Sariel. Draco too. If anyone should use any of these without my permission.....well, I'll mope. And then I'll find you and crush you underneath a tank. Filled with high-explosives. And all the mopey, whiny Gundam protagonists that didn't grow something resembling a spine (Shinn).  
Similarly, Velshard has dibs on almost the entire line of replacement units for ZAFT, excluding one. He has administrative privileges over the Noctoraptor (Enhanced), Ferox, and Verin Gundams. He also has ownage over the horrifying abomination or deification (depends on your point of view) of all that's good and pure in this universe, otherwise called the Tetsujin. The beings of Andrew Victor Payne, Karlton William Hertz, and the Van Dalygon family are belong to him.  
The Megalodon design belongs to....well Kojiro Kun gave me the idea.  
The ZONGS design belongs to animefan29.  
00virtuezero's contributions include the Gundams Repulse and Outlaw, and his OCs Wesley Mercis, and Michael Archer.

Gundam Seed: Killer's Realm

Phase 26: Brutality, Part 1

**Orb, Main Island, Zenopolis City, Maglev Metro  
February 19, 71 CE  
9:32 AM**

_Tap. Tap. TapTap. TapTapTap. TapTappityTapperTapzee._

This was the sound that Yzak heard, piercing the light hum of the Maglev Train, and even the conversations of his fellow Redcoats.

_t-t-t-t-t-t-tttttap-tap-tap-ta-t-tap-tap-tap-taptaptaptaptaptaptaptap-ttttttt-t-ta-tap._

"For the sake of my sanity and the safety of your skull, couldn't you Glenndamn wait until I'm FAR AWAY from you to do that?" Yzak shouted at Kira. The Prince of Orb didn't even look up from his laptop, still incessantly typing away at a speed of about 396 gross words per minute, judging by the sound. Growling, the white-haired Coordinator got up and walked across the aisle towards Kira.

In the seat next to Kira's, Jack was sleeping. Thus far in the trip, it was a peaceful and quiet rest, without any loud or annoying sounds that distracted Yzak from his current target of Kira.

_"And.....now!"_ Chimamare ordered gleefully, causing Jack to let out a very loud and obnoxious snore. Just as Chimamare predicted, Yzak snapped, going for Jack's throat. Instead, Chimamare wrapped one of Jack's hands around Yzak's neck, squeezing hard, without Jack himself noticing the action and continuing to sleep. By now Chimamare was guessing he'd only need a few more seconds to permanently imprint Jack's fingers into Yzak's neck.

"AH! Jack, let him go!" Nicol cried, grabbing Jack's arm and tugging.

"Kira! Help us here!" Dearka jumped on Yzak, trying to wrestle him away from Jack. Finally, Kira saved what he was working on and looked up.

"I told you guys not to get too close to him!"

"What you didn't tell us was that he sleep-strangles!" Athrun hissed, just before Yzak accidentally kicked him in the gut. Cagalli caught Athrun and pushed him back, joining him in grabbing Yzak and helping Dearka pull him away. Yzak's own struggles to get Jack's hand off of his jugular were actually impeding his comrades' efforts to do the same.

Kira astonished them all by drawing his balisong, flipping out the blade and pressing the flat to the back of Jack's neck. Instantly, the schizophrenic's arm went limp and floppy, falling from Yzak's neck to rest on Jack's side.

"Grrrrrrr WHY DON'T YOU KEEP A LEASH ON THAT THING!" Yzak roared somewhat hoarsely, massaging his neck.

"I did at one point. He used it to strangle someone." Kira answered, to the astonished and disturbed looks of the ZAFT Redcoats and to the sighs of Cagalli.

"Why did he stop when you pressed your knife to his neck?" Dearka asked, glancing over the head of the seat Jack was sitting in. To the casual observer, Jack would appear to be sleeping like a baby. Actually, even a trained spy would conclude that he was perfectly harmless at this moment, disregarding the earlier throttling.

"I don't know why, but the feeling of anything cold on that part of his neck tends to calm him down from one of his rages." Kira supplied, shrugging as to why that would have any effect. In reality, that was an unfortunate side-effect from the Alliance experiments in nano-technological augmentation that had made Jack as he was. A sudden decrease in temperature on the epidermis on the back of the neck, where the central nanomachine control was, would cause the nanomachines assigned to the muscular system to temporarily malfunction, ceasing the progress of conscious signals to the muscles before being repaired by maintenance machines.

"We're here!" Cagalli celebrated when the train stopped, dragging Athrun with their luggage behind her as she raced up to street level, completely bypassing the other departing passengers and would-be boarders, barreling up the escalators.

"Damn she's fast." Dearka noted, with Nicol nodding sagely next to him. "I wonder how all that energy translates to their experiences in bed...."

"Pardon?" Kira asked, turning his head swiftly away from his packing to glare at the duo with a glare that promised instant torture should they delay in responding.

"I-I-II-It's just a joke! Hahaha..." Dearka blurted, holding his hands up in an attempt to fend off the horror of that glare.

"Coward." Yzak grunted, tugging his luggage past the sweating pilot of the Ferox and heading towards the surface himself. "Damn, why is this thing so heavy now?" The reason was apparent to the onlookers, as Jack had woken and somehow grabbed onto the end of Yzak's suitcase and laid himself on a skateboard, allowing the white-haired Redcoat to pull him along.

"Weirdest thing you've seen him do?" Dearka asked Kira, sounding hopeful in the extreme.

"Not even close." Kira shook his head, grabbed his suitcase and backpack and walked out with his laptop under his arm.

- Quis est a Iuguolo nisi a Iuguolo? -

**Universal Street, Century Apartments**

About the only thing that could be said about the building that could in any way be taken as even relatively complementary was that it was rather big compared to the ones surrounding it**. **The original paint, whatever the color, had pretty much flaked completely off, to be replaced by at least a mobile suit's worth in spray-paint of graffiti. Parts of the facade were crumbling or had crumbled, leaving an entire centimeter of the windows' frames exposed and leaving an actual hole next to the door where someone could stick their arm through and unlock it.

So the Redcoats were surprised when Kira and Cagalli entered without hesitation.

Athrun went next, followed shortly by Nicol and then Dearka. Yzak took a few seconds, glancing from the run-down building to the view of the Chief Representative's estate, north-west of the city, before grumbling harshly and heading in. The group was now in what appeared to be the lobby, with Kira having moved behind the desk and hooked his laptop up to a wire of some type. Jack was nowhere to be seen.

After clicking and typing a few times in succession, he closed the laptop, got up with his luggage, and headed for the elevator on the right side of the lobby.

"Aren't you gonna-"

"He doesn't need it." Cagalli interrupted Athrun, tugging on his arm to follow after Kira. After exchanging looks, the rest of them stepped onto the elevator with the Orb Royalty (and former ZAFT 'Royalty') and waited. And waited. And waited. Until.....

"Well, what floor is it?" Yzak fumed. The elevator then began to move downward without anyone touching the buttons. Fast. It caused the Redcoats to temporarily lose their balance.

"B100." Kira replied, with a completely straight face. "On a rail-guided elevator with hybrid hyper alloy armor plating and ballistic shock gel, integrated nano-machine based biometrics and four machine gun turrets concealed in the ceiling heading down at sixty kilometers per hour." No more than five minutes later, the elevator stopped and the doors opened, revealing a technophile's wonderland.

It was a room that was filled with displays, readout, and-

**"BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA**!" The freaky frightening laugh practically stopped their hearts, and drew their gazes to the left side where they saw Liene was.

"Liene? Did you- Were you-" Nicol stuttered, trying to control his startled heart.

"It's Jack." Liene replied irritably. He was currently monitoring what looked like a screen filled with esoteric characters and alphanumeric script. Liene himself looked eerie, with his cybernetic eyes glowing bright blue. "He does that every time someone new comes down here when I'm working." He gestured vaguely off to the side, focused on the screen. Looking where the mechanical prodigy pointed, the group beheld Jack holding a microphone connected to a set of speakers.

"**KEK**" He uttered, before dropping the mic. Kira coughed. Liene stepped away from the terminal, his eyes ceasing to glow, and stood before the group. Resuming their inspection of the room, the Redcoats saw that it was maybe a hundred square meters in size, roughly octagonal in shape, with consoles covering the walls except for four doors set equidistant to one another, and the elevator. In the center was a large circular table made primarily of some titanium alloy, although its top surface appeared to be made of some crystalline substance. There was a similar structure on the ceiling, placed perfectly over the table with the exact same construction. Liene cleared his throat, drawing their attention back to him.

"Welcome to Facility X18999. Colloquially known as 'Enma's Locker." People began swarming into the room, all dressed in what looked like less bulky versions of the armor that Gary wore, and had visors instead of those creepy skulls. Three of them ran at the group, causing the Redcoats to tense up into fighting postures.

They totally bypassed them, targeting Kira for a glomping.

"Kira!" Was the speaker-shouted cry, as a metric ton's worth of power-armored female pilot pressed the Ultimate Coordinator and Ace Pilot into the floor.

"Hello Asagi, Juri, Mayuri." Kira grunted out. "How have you been? Please get off me."

"Meet the three primary Tetsujin test pilots, Asagi Caldwell, Juri Wu Nien and Mayura Labatt" Kira introduced, pointing to each in turn. They removed their helmets, revealing a blond girl with hair like a messier Mu, a dark blue-haired girl with glasses, and a short-red haired girl, respectively.

"What's this they're wearing?" Dearka wondered, moving closer to them and studying the armor. "It looks like what that friend of Kira's, Gary was wearing."

"It's the pilot version." Liene said. "Nothing you need to know about......yet."

"Er.....ok."

"So, how long have you guys been using this?" Athrun said, drawing Liene's attention. "It seems like you'd have to spend a lot of time building it."

"Oh, we've had it for years." Mayuri said, eyes glimmering. "We just have to pay rent."

"Rent?" Nicol asked, not getting it.

"Yeah, Andrew had to negotiate with Lucifer to get this space." Jack said, grinning as per usual. "He got a pretty good deal. Ten pure Orb virgins sacrificed per year so long as we promise to use this place for the purposes of death and destruction. It's better than the terms OMNI got for their Debris Belt places. They have to spend eight hours a day praising the landowner. It's wonder they ever get anything done."

The Redcoats stared at him.

"Who the hell is Lucifer?" Yzak asked.

"Oh right, you guys were raised in the PLANTs. You didn't have to deal with all that crap." Jack said, before going on to mutter about jihads and nuking Jerusalem or something.

"Anyway, let's get onto the reason Kira's brought you here." Liene interjected, his eyes briefly flaring blue again. Taking the hint, the Tetsujin Testers flooded back out of the room. The 'table' and its ceiling-mounted counterpart in the center of the room suddenly sprang to life, their crystal surfaces glowing a blue similar to Liene's eyes before shifting through what seemed the entire spectrum. Slowly, in the air between them, images coalesced out of the light, showing.....

The Gundams ZAFT had claimed.

Each one, The Bastion, The Ferox, The Noctoraptor, and The Enmity were displayed at maybe a twentieth of their actual size, with every detail perfectly rendered.

"As you know, The G-Project units, now commonly called 'Gundams' were mostly complete when you stole them from Heliopolis." Even Yzak shuddered under the somewhat grim look Liene leveled at them. "However, the level of technology and the designs themselves were mostly done to the Earth Alliance's specs, not to Morgenroete's. As such, you're here to help us update them." He continued coolly, as frames opened up next to the holographic Gundams, briefly scrolling through what seemed to be a complete readout of each Gundam, before closing and being replaced by another image of the Gundam. However, these new images were different. "In order to ensure that we can upgrade each Gundam to the exact specifications, you're going to be serving as-"

"Our guinea pigs." Jack butted in with a grin, as always. "Although, the Bastion's just going to be left to rot."

"What? Why?" Athrun asked in an astonished tone, not noticing the smirk Cagalli had behind his back. He did notice Kira's sheepish grin. "Kira! What's he talking about?" He demanded, moving in on his best friend.

"It's not what you think!" Kira protested. "Come on Liene, show them!"

"Hold up." Jack said, placing a hand on Liene's shoulder. "I got a bet running with Kikuchi. I get fifty creds if Kira accidentally beats the snot out of Athrun." In order to remove Jack, Liene resorted to the tried and true method of zapping him in the side with a tazer.

"Anyway," Liene picked back up, "The item Kira refers to is this." The holograms of the Gundams and their upgraded versions flashed, to be replaced by two new units. They all crowded around the emitters, getting a closer look at them.

"This," Liene continued, gesturing at the unit on their left, "Is the Principes." The Principes had all the standard Gundam features, the V-fin, the samurai-inspired head design, and the basic body structure. It apparently took its coloring from the Bastion, being colored mainly red with iridescent gold highlights and a deep orange secondary coloring. However, its armor was formed similar to the Kiba's, with curved surfaces and no sharp lines or angles. However, the most arresting feature was the twin wings structures attached to its backpack part.

"Aren't those the Kuro Tenshi's wings?" Nicol asked.

"Yes and no." Liene replied. "Structurally, they are almost an exact replica of the Kuro Tenshi pack's wings. In regard to equipment though, they are far more advanced. Instead of using standard thrusters, the wings utilize the Hybrid Plasma Pulse Jet Engines that the Tetsujin uses, along with Ramjets modified to utilize magnetic fields to improve their thrust."

During Liene's mini-lecture, the Redcoats noticed other features of the Principes, including the oval structures on its forearms, what looked like blades of some kind sticking out from the knee, and even arms extending from its hips.

"This unit is the Magatama," Liene stated, "And it is assigned to Cagalli." Those who weren't in the know turned to stare at the Princess of Orb.

"What? You don't think I can pilot a Gundam?" She huffed.

The Magatama was similar in overall construction to the Principes, including the wings and the curved armor. Unusually, its thruster and engine exhausts were flared wide, almost as though to spread the expelled plasma out further. The most outstanding feature of the Magatama was its coloring. It was gold. Pure, bright, shining gold. Another feature was that it apparently took some cues from the Bastion, with elongated elbow and knee armor flanges.

"The Magatama is primarily designed for C3 duties, while also disrupting enemy forces using a system that I'm working on now." Liene explained.

"Hold up. If Cagalli gets this Magatama, then what's Kira doing." Dearke asked, frowning as he pointed his thumb over his shoulder at Kira.

"Due to issues of intelligence security, all parties involved have agreed to keep Kira's new Gundam a secret until circumstances dictate otherwise." Spake the engineering guru. "Now, if you don' have anymore questions.....It's time to start."

- Quis est a Iuguolo nisi a Iuguolo? -

A/N: Alright, I can explain. As you all know (I hope) The new Unicorn Gundam OVA came out a while ago. I only found out about it about a week after it came out. And while some of you may say that doesn't explain a two-day tardiness in updates-

("You're _sick_, sick I say! As a living, breathing human being without cybernetic augmentations, aren't you supposed to be attracted to human women and not highly advanced weapons designs?")

I could say the same thing about you little robotic pervert. As a miniature Gundam/Knightmare Frame hybrid, shouldn't you prefer machines over well-endowed women?

("Point taken. But at least I just chase after them, whereas you stare longingly at a frozen image and mast-")

*BLAM!

Shut it. Anyway, in other news, I now have a disclaimer. I hope it makes you giggle and/or shake your head at me.

G. Wager: Strange. Most people tend to enjoy the crazed fighting. Ah well, now we're back with Kira and Co.

Nivek Beldo: Nice to hear from you again Nivek.  
We still have a ways to go, but yeah we're getting there.  
Thank you. Personally, so do I.  
New factions are always interesting, especially when something interesting (cough, Gundams, cough) result.

Akalon: I'm glad that you like it. Over 140,000 words in less than a day? Damn.  
Thank you, I was beginning to think no one else was getting them. Hope to hear more from you.


	43. Phase 27: Brutality, Part 2

_**Disclaimer and Notes of Ownership:**_ I do not own the Gundam Franchise, or any of the characters from said franchise. If I did, I would probably use the massive fortunes resulting from that to develop real-life mobile suits and conquer the world, with a corresponding level of glee and madness.  
("He actually drew up plans for it too.")  
I do however, own all the technical designs labeled with PGAT, XHMA, MMA, XSBF, XABF, PMU, MLWS, CI, CPH and SDDGN in their alphanumeric designations, along with a portion of those labeled XGAT. I own Jack Kagizaki's mind, body and soul, as well as those of Captain Gary Shimizu and his Shoki Team. Along with that goes the Abaddons, the Grigori, and good ol' David Sariel. Drake too. If anyone should use any of these without my permission.....well, I'll mope. And then I'll find you and crush you underneath a tank. Filled with high-explosives. And all the mopey, whiny Gundam protagonists that didn't grow something resembling a spine (Shinn).  
Similarly, Velshard has dibs on almost the entire line of replacement units for ZAFT, excluding one. He has administrative privileges over the Noctoraptor (Enhanced), Ferox, and Verin Gundams. He also has ownage over the horrifying abomination or deification (depends on your point of view) of all that's good and pure in this universe, otherwise called the Tetsujin. The beings of Andrew Victor Payne, Karlton William Hertz, and the Van Dalygon family are belong to him.  
The Megalodon design belongs to....well Kojiro Kun gave me the idea.  
The ZONGS design belongs to animefan29.  
00virtuezero's contributions include the Gundams Repulse and Outlaw, and his OCs Wesley Mercis, and Michael Archer.

Gundam Seed: Killer's Realm

Phase 27: Brutality, Part 2

**Combat Simulation 133E/A-19, Debris Belt  
February 28, 71 CE  
1345 Hours**

To the casual observer, it would appear to be just like any other day in the Debris Belt. The hunks of scrap, collected vacuum dust, and flash-frozen bits of armor alloys floated serenely above the Earth, every once in a while surrendering to the pull of its gravity and tumbling through the atmosphere before disintegrating under the enormous thermal and kinetic stress that was atmospheric friction. Looks were very deceiving.

For in this particular part of the Debris Belt, in High Earth orbit above Central America, a platoon of OMNI Enforcer Constantines were set to engage one, single mobile suit. Most would consider this to be overkill, as there was no such thing as a ZAMS that could begin to resist such a force, not even ZONGS or SCAU mobile suits would prove a challenge. To those ignorant of the most recent developments in mobile suit technology, such a thing would be ludicrous.

The Constantines were led by a single Strategos unit, who at the moment was strafing around an engine of a Drake-class ship, on the look-out. Around it, it's platoon leap-frogged over each other, constantly keeping behind floating hulks or left-overs of resource asteroids. The entire group was armed with the low-grade beam rifles the rank-and-file used, although some also had ablative shields, and the Strategos held an anti-ship sword in its main hand, with a beam SMG in its left. Any military analyst with a speck of sense would instantly see that they were slowly surrounding what appeared to be the desiccated carcass of a Nazca-Class Destroyer.

When the platoon had almost completely encircled the hulk, with only a fifteen-meter gap left untended, a blue streak flew up out of the Nazca wreck, arcing over before the flare of verniers steadied it behind the Strategos commander. Suddenly, the torso of the Strategos wrenched outward as though a blade were stabbed through it, shortly followed by an enormous beam sword slicing through it before slashing side-to-side, bisecting the suit. Floating behind the remnants was a Gundam, poised like a veteran on the battlefield. The Gundam was almost completely white, except for splashes of blue on the sides of its head and on the top half of its chest, and streaks of red-orange outlining the gold cameras and the edges of the cockpit. Two shields extended down next to the Gundam, connected to its shoulders by short 'arms', built like oval versions of the Gundams' Anti-Beam Shields. Missile tubes decorated a slim part of the shoulders right next to the head, and the beam sword in the Gundam's right hand was off-set by a beam rifle in the other.

The rifle was raised and aimed at a Constantine hovering next to what had once been a comet, now a cloud of semi-frozen vapor and dust. The rifle fired for five seconds, spitting out a hail of twenty-five beams, each striking the unfortunate mobile suit in various places. The five-second burst severed the Constantine's head and arms and holing the torso, where the majority of the beams had struck, leaving the main body resembling a hunk of gray cheese that had been viciously stabbed by a red-hot poker.

About five hundred meters away, a trio of Constantines accelerated through a cloud of micro-meteorites, suffering the minor dings and scratches to close in more rapidly with their target. The Gundam curiously raised the shield binder that was facing them, exposing that side. However, this action revealed a trio of weapons integrated into the shield's ventral surface. One, built into the upper-left surface was a wide cylindrical mechanism with a puny bore about 1mm in diameter. After a very brief moment, the bore lit up, emitting a high-frequency laser direct into the cameras of the lead Constantine, frying the delicate circuitry. The blinded Constantine panicked, vernier thrusters flaring as it reversed its course directly into its comrades.

Raising its rifle, the Gundam fired one beam, spearing the blinded suit and one of its comrades. Unlike most beams, this beam's destructive energy was somewhat more physical than thermal, smashing into and through the Constantines' armor and superstructure, although the edges of the blasted hole glowed a bright yellow. The force of the beam sent the newly-christened wrecks on a one-way trip to Brazil, if they survived re-entry.

The Gundam, however, had more important things to deal with than defeated foes. Offhandedly slashing the Constantine that remained, the Gundam's head turned, cameras shifting startlingly like human eyes to survey the space. For a few seconds, all was still. The shields moved, sweeping the barrels of their lasers across the field without any visible fire.

Then, depressions on its equivalent of the collarbone flashed, sending twelve projectiles into the void. Mere seconds after that, the micro-missiles were a kilometer away from the Gundam when their thrusters activated, one primary and three verniers. Combined with the initial acceleration from the gauss coils inside the missile tubes, the micro-missiles reached speeds that were nigh-impossible in atmosphere, while arcing around and heading back into the field. Each missile maneuvered through the debris, avoiding scraps of metal and hunks of floating rock before impacting on their precise targets, either the upper or lower part of a Constantine, two missiles targeted to each Constantine by the lasers set to mark the targets.

Six of the mobile suits were destroyed in an instant.

- Quis est a Iuguolo nisi a Iuguolo? -

**Reality, Mobile Pilot Training Facility X18999 'Enma's Locker', Simulation Room 133E**

Yzak climbed out of the simulation cockpit, clad in exercise pants and a dark blue T-shirt and coughing out globs of oxygenated Non-Newtonian Gel. The stuff was nasty, but it supposedly allowed him to withstand greater G-forces. Truth be told, it had worked. He'd put the simulated Gundam through paces that had him working harder for his breath in the old Enmity, and barely felt a thing.

"Hey Yzak! Glad to hear you succeeded." Yzak groaned. Jack. The black-haired pseudo-Coordinator was standing in the doorway of the room, arms folded over his chest and standing supreme.

"What is it?" Yzak grumbled.

"Well, first off, we're ready to show the first two Second Stage Gundams!?" Jack gibbered, now hopping up and down like a child with a new toy.....which wasn't that far off from the truth.

"Really?" Yzak said, trying to restrain his interest.

"Ohh....I hear that tone in your voice." Jack said slyly.

_**"Oh boy, here we go again."**_ Chimamare grumbled.

"That note of _anticipation_, that hint of _curiosity._ You want to know just what kind of Gundams these are, to cast shadows over the originals." The schizophrenic continued, eying the former Redcoat. "Well? What are you waiting for? Come on!" He jibed, darting down the hallway. Yzak stood next to his simulation cockpit for a moment, fuming, before he threw his helmet against the wall and stalked after Jack, muttering.

**Hanger A1**

"Everyone here?" Erica Simmons called out, looking around the darkened hanger. It was, to say the least, an impressive gathering of important people. Major-General Payne, Colonel Hertz, Kira, along with an assortment of Morgenroete higher-ups. Perhaps a bit more important than any of those were the Gundam Pilots, including Kira, seeing as the subject of this was the first of the next generation of Gundams.

"Alright. Thanks to the good graces of the Clyne Loyalists-" The veritable fleet of those loyal to Siegel Clyne had arrived at the old L4 colony well over a week ago, and had gotten set up quickly with the help of from an Orb company, Huynh Industries. Since then, the 'Clyne Loyalists' had practically forced every bit of technology and information they had from ZAFT on Orb, which had eagerly accepted each and every byte. "- We have completed the first of our new Gundams: The XABF-000a Raijin!" The left side of the hanger lit up, floodlights mounted on the ceiling aimed down to illuminate the Gundam.

The Raijin was a silvery-platinum suit with curvaceous armor, much like the Kiba. However, its legs were every bit the Tetsujin's, possessing the same raptor-like construction and taloned feet. The Raijin's face was almost a carbon copy of the Kiba's, except that the cameras were an unsettling translucent white color surrounded by some sort of bright white coating, and the zigzag faceplate was a darker color than the rest. The head had not sensor fins, although the trademark V-fin sensor system was retained. In place of the sensor spines, there were what looked like long cables of varying sizes, extending out from the Raijin's head and towards its back, ending in a dart-like extension. Notably, the Raijin's hands were slimmer than the Kiba's, and its fingers were somewhat bigger.

A version of the Maser Vibration Spikes that the Kiba had been upgraded with were mounted on the forearms, slimmer and longer than their forerunners. There was no sign of the trademark claw gauntlets, although two weapons, a rifle with what looked like a chainsaw bayonet and some sort of carbine, holstered at the Raijin's hips. Only the keen-eyed and knowledgeable noticed that the CIWS ports in the head were smaller, although the barrels extended slightly out.

"The Raijin is basically the Kiba, except using Orb technology for the most part." Erica said, everyone noting a slight glimmer of pride. "It uses an alternate version of the Tetsujin's Hybrid Plasma Pulse Engines modified to use liquids as well as gas in order for amphibious operations. As you've noticed, it uses the Tetsujin's leg design, allowing it great running land-speed, and this extends to the rest of the Raijin, with an internal superstructure based off of the Tetsujin's and the same linear magnetic joints." A short pause for breath. "In terms of weaponry, the Raijin has claws just like the Kiba's, only instead of mounting them on gauntlets and forcing the pilot to laboriously switch out between gauntlet and other weapons, we've incorporated the claws directly onto the hands, making them capable of folding into the finger to allow the Raijin to handle objects without dicing them apart."

"We've replaced the sensor spines with a new system incorporating various technologies: The Multifunctional Vari-Filament System. It utilizes chords, cables and filaments of various different materials and manufacture to detect sound, light, radio waves, and even smells while also serving as a heat sink for the Raijin's main weapons mounted in its head."

By now, the majority of the people present were muttering, walking around the hanger to get a better look at the Raijin, although the Orb military members and Gundam pilots stayed put.

"We have also finished the second Gundam!" Erica announced suddenly, hitting another button on the remote and revealing the second Gundam. It was almost a carbon copy of the Raijin, except with a slight blue hue and V-fins that were thinner, longer, and had a more acute angle. "The XABF-000b Fuujin!"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa hold on!" Yzak yelled. "Why do you need two Gundams that are exactly the same?"

"Well...." Erica said, rubbing her head, "Originally, we didn't intend to make the Fuujin....but General Payne requested another amphibious Gundam to counter the large numbers of Megalodons OMNI has, as well as the new amphibious-pack-equipped Constantines. Instead of a cockpit, it has a dedicated AI Core with an AI programmed to control the mobile suit. The AI is slaved to the Raijin via a Quantum Entanglement Device, extremely expensive. It's programmed to complement Jack."

"An AI? How'd you program it." Nicol asked.

"We used Jack's brainwave data." Erica explained, much to the horror of all but one: Jack. The freak rushed up to her and wrapped her up in her arms, crying silent tears of joy.

"I always wanted a little brother." Jack choked. After a second, Erica hugged Jack back in a motherly manner, while the eyes of everyone else bugged out at the display.

In the back, Liene shook his head, muttering: "I just know that this is going to be one of the worst ideas in the long sad history of bad ideas."

- Quis est a Iuguolo nisi a Iuguolo? -

**Cafeteria**

"I don't see what the problem is." Kira said, interrupting the current conversation among the Gundam pilots. "I mean, so we have another Jack. It's not like...."

"We're all gonna die." Dearka bemoaned. The others around the table nodded their heads, most with looks like they had swallowed something unpleasant, except for Yzak who looked like someone had insulted his mother. Kira sighed at their negativity, but didn't remark. They'd learn later.

For a while, the talk turned back to normal things, which girls were most attractive, the 'sweetness' of the Tetsujins, and among the Coordinators and more learned engineers, some high-level engineering and information technology discussions. And then of course, piloting skill.

"How the hell are you so good Kira?" Dearka asked, leaning towards the Prince of Orb from across the table, imitated by his team-mates.

"There's a theory about that." Erica butted in from her end of the table. "It's called the SEED factor."

"That whack-job pseudo-science." Yzak barked, almost laughing. "Super Evolutionary Element Destined? Don't make me laugh!"

"I'll admit that the theory is a bit unrefined...." Erica said slowly. "But the proof sits before you." She gestured to Kira, who ducked his head a little, embarrassed. That got their attention. "In it's most basic premise, SEED is basically an evolutionary theory where certain individuals are faster, stronger, and smarter than the rest of the human race, primarily because they are the 'prototypes' if you will, of the next version of the human race." Everyone nodded. They'd all heard this in one form or another over their lives, when the theory had come about during their early school years.

"However, some recent experiments have revealed surprising data. Orb scientists all over the Earth Sphere have detected a strange subatomic particle that emits radiation unlike anything known. This radiation can - and has - affected parts of the human nervous system, essentially mutating us into better humans." That elicited low mutters and loud thoughts. "This particle seems to be quantitatively stronger in space, and it also seems to affect altered humans more profoundly."

"Wait, you mean-"

"Yes." Erica interrupted Nicol. "There are likely to be far more Coordinators with the SEED factor than Naturals, although one of the side-effects of the SEED factor is likely to be far more profound in Naturals."

"Side-effects?"

"Yes. Individuals with the SEED factor are able to enter into a state not unlike an adrenaline rush. In this state, their reaction speed is significantly increased, as well as their information processing capability. Has Kira ever just suddenly gone 'berserk' or seemed to spontaneously increase in ability?" Erica asked. They all thought for a moment before shaking their heads. "I see. I guess our next hypothesis has come true. The particles' radiation has affected Kira to the point that his normal performance almost equals the performance of others in the 'berserk' state."

"Um...Excuse me." Dearka, butting in. "But what exactly are these particles?"

"No one knows." Erica replied. "But, records from 2045 A.D. and back indicate that these particles must have appeared in the 'Dark Centuries', between 2051 and 2530. As you know, most electronically stored information regarding that time period has either disappeared or been destroyed since the start of Cosmic era. Presumably, this is some kind of artificial particle, developed during the Dark Centuries, and released in copious amounts, either to hyper-accelerate the development of the SEED factor, or for some other reason. Interestingly, the majority of the radio and sensor interference these days actually seems to be attributed to these mystery particles than the Neutron Jammers...."

- Quis est a Iuguolo nisi a Iuguolo? -

"Man, that was a bombshell." Dearka said as the three former Redcoats strolled down a hall, heading away from the cafeteria and toward the break room. "I mean, Kira's different, sure, but as an actual transhuman prototype? Damn." Before Yzak could comment on that, the trio entered the break room, accidentally timing it to coincide with the entering of the main trainees, just off their training shift.

During the past week, the trio had to deal with a lot of new information. Luckily, unlike Athrun, their respective parents had fled along with Siegel Clyne, so they had little compunction to feel much guilt. Athrun had lucked out of their current situation by being sent off to Lagrange 4 as Cagalli's escort in her role as liaison to the new faction the Clyne Loyalists had formed for the duration of the war, the Loyalist Integrated Neo-Coalition, or LINC. Because now, he didn't have to deal with one eccentricity of Orb's military: four out of five of their pilots were women. Not just any women either. 'I model on magazine covers' women. And when not in OMU-P piloting armor, they were usually dressed in their 'casual wear' pilot suits, which were.....not designed for modesty.

Aside from the female pilots, a large number of the male pilots were scattered about the room, including three particular ones: Kira, Karl, and Mu, with Karl and Mu playing air hockey while Kira judged.

"Oh man, there they are again!" Dearka whispered, staring ten meters across the room at the trio of women there. It was the Tetsujin test pilots, Asagi, Juri, and Mayuri.

"Not this again..." Yzak sighed.

"Oh come on! There's three of them, one for each of us!" Dearka hissed, making Nicol blush.

"You disappoint me Dearka." Yzak said, a scathing tone in his somewhat loud whisper. "They're just Naturals." None of them noticed the three women in question stiffening, or the rest of the room calmly and sneakily maneuvering to get out of the line of fire.

"But-" Nicol cut in, "Yzak, they were the first three chosen to test the Tetsujin, with Kira picking them."

"Yeah, if Orb's Prince and all-around kick-ass pilot picked them out, then they must be good." Dearka added. Yzak shook his head.

"They're women." He stated. "Weaker, slower, and far too emotional, so of course they're inferior." The blond test pilot, Asagi, whipped around and stalked over to the trio of former ZAFT pilots, with those surrounding them scrambling out of the way. She stomped right up to Yzak, getting up in his face.

"If we're so weak, how about proving it!?" She snarled. "Fight, here and now!" Yzak smirked and shook his head, saying-

"Or are you too chicken to fight a girl?" Asagi grinned.

That did it. Yzak glared at her before stepping back and assuming a stance. Asagi, now the one smirking, took two steps back before also assuming a stance.

"Watch this." Back with Karl and Mu, the SpecOpsIntel Major motioned Mu towards the fight, while Kira walked over to the two.

"Asagi, please don't break Yzak. We do kind of need him in one piece for testing purposes, and he is the son of a member of the LINC Council." Kira started, while Jack, who had been tailing the Redcoats waiting for a chance to 'debrief' Yzak, was miming punches at the Coordinator, along with kicks and other martial arts techniques in a general message to 'lay the hurt on' as some would say. Without a break in his speech, Kira threw an air hockey paddle over his shoulder,past Yzak, in between Dearka and Nicol, and hit Jack square between the eyes.

Yzak, intending to end the fight fast and not hurt Asagi too much, rushes her and goes for a high spin-kick at her head, using his rotational momentum to maximize power, Asagi reached out, literally faster than the eye can see and stopped his leg dead before he can hit her.

Compared to the rest of a human body, the legs are quite strong and the amount of force a reasonably well-exercised individual can put into a kick made it so that no one, not even the best martial arts masters can stop a kick dead, they will always be affected by it quite a bit and if they aren't then they must be superhuman.

So, quite naturally, this was rather shocking to Yzak, Mu, and the rest of the uninformed. Asagi then grabbed Yzak's leg with her other arm and proceeded to swing Yzak over her head like a pick axe and pound him head first into the floor. At this point Yzak had a slightly panicked look to his face and tried altering his position to both keep from slamming head first into the floor and to try and throw Asagi off balance by bending backwards.

But as he does so Asagi released his leg and viciously punted him in the chest, causing him to go tumbling ass over tea kettle for about 30 feet, slamming him into the break room's wall. For a few seconds, Yzak just laid there, stunned.

"Shit." Dearka and Nicol, surprisingly, breathed simultaneously, doing a double-take on the two test pilots still near them and subtly (or so they thought) inching away from them.

Meanwhile Asagi very femininely strolled up to the prone Yzak, who can't help but notice how attractive she is despite kicking his butt, before leaning down to his face and saying:

"If you ever want to try again some time little boy all you have to do is ask." All while smiling cutely. Yzak just nodded dumbly in response.

- Quis est a Iuguolo nisi a Iuguolo? -

A/N: Alright, I believe I missed....two? yeah, two update dates. My complete apologies, it's all Velshard's fault.

("You backstabbing bastard!")

Sheesh, calm down I'm joking. It's my fault. Mostly. 3% at least is Velshard's and his ideas, although I have to admit the one I put in this chapter, and the one I'm gonna put in next chapter are pretty good. The other one is good Omake material, with slight appearances in the main story.

Besides that, how do you guys like Jack's Raijin and the AI-piloted Fuujin.....which, by the way, is yet another of Velshard's ideas.

("You leech of off other people, but at least you own up to it")

Whatever. By the way, you get an imaginary cookie if you can guess why I chose the range of 2050 through 2530 for my fictional 'Dark Centuries' (I may have unintentionally stolen a bit from Turn A Gundam, but I'm not sure. Mainly because I never saw it) Hint: It has something to do with Gundam, and recent.

G. Wagers: Well, it's almost a real MS battle. Kinda. I'll give you the length and the plot part.  
There may be a tech file, but I have a superstition about interrupting three-part story arcs.

Mathisasosx: Truth be told, the only joke I've told in real life that elicited a non-faked laugh from anyone was: "I can't play an air guitar, but I can play an air trombone."  
Maybe it's because it's Gundam, and I'm far more relaxed on the internet than I am in real life......  
Jack has some funny/disturbing here.

GS4ever: Thank you. But as for Kira's Gundam.....well, that will probably be in a little while. Just because the epicness deserves story-telling on the scale of the Trojan War (hint)

Well, keep reading! And reviewing. Please, review. PLEASE!!!

("Oh gross, human tears. I need a bath.")

Knightmare Gundam of Ni


	44. Phase 28: Brutality, Part 3

_**Disclaimer and Notes of Ownership:**_ I do not own the Gundam Franchise, or any of the characters from said franchise. If I did, I would probably use the massive fortunes resulting from that to develop real-life mobile suits and conquer the world, with a corresponding level of glee and madness.  
("He actually drew up plans for it too.")  
I do however, own all the technical designs labeled with PGAT, XHMA, MMA, XSBF, XABF, PMU, MLWS, CI, CPH and SDDGN in their alphanumeric designations, along with a portion of those labeled XGAT. I own Jack Kagizaki's mind, body and soul, as well as those of Captain Gary Shimizu and his Shoki Team. Along with that goes the Abaddons, the Grigori, and good ol' David Sariel. Drake too. If anyone should use any of these without my permission.....well, I'll mope. And then I'll find you and crush you underneath a tank. Filled with high-explosives. And all the mopey, whiny Gundam protagonists that didn't grow something resembling a spine.  
Similarly, Velshard has dibs on almost the entire line of replacement units for ZAFT, excluding one. He has administrative privileges over the Noctoraptor (Enhanced), Ferox, and Verin Gundams. He also has ownage over the horrifying abomination or deification (depends on your point of view) of all that's good and pure in this universe, otherwise called the Tetsujin. The beings of Andrew Victor Payne, Karlton William Hertz, and the Van Dalygon family are belong to him.  
The Megalodon design belongs to....well Kojiro Kun gave me the idea.  
The ZONGS design belongs to animefan29.  
00virtuezero's contributions include the Gundams Repulse and Outlaw, and his OCs Wesley Mercis, and Michael Archer.

Gundam Seed: Killer's Realm

Phase 28: Brutality, Part 3

**PLANT Reentry Shuttle, Geosynchronous Orbit, Over the Indian Ocean  
February 30, 71 CE  
4:57 AM (Orb Time)  
**

Athrun sat smack-dab in the middle of the shuttle, Cagalli next to him and Lacus in front of him, all returning from the L4 Research Colony, once known as Mendel, that was now being converted into a makeshift PLANT for the former ZAFT troopers and PLANT citizens that were loyal to Siegel Clyne and his supporters. All told, maybe just over two million had left to form the Loyalist Integrated Neo-Coalition, or LINC, which was at best a temporary refugee government. For the first few months, their lives would be rough, all crammed onto a single colony that hadn't even been intended for habitation by large numbers of people.

Luckily, Huynh Industries had picked up on the situation, lending the budding colony-state over thirty of its Magnetically-Attached Terrariums, or MATs, each capable of housing up to a thousand people each for a short amount of time. The MATs worked by generating a powerful magnetic field that locked them to a specific magnetic emitter attached to the surface of a colony just as the Earth and Sun's gravitational fields locked them to each other. Each was a spherical object that was half-hollow, the 'upper section' (relative to the colony) serving as habitation space while the lower section served as docks, life-support core, and giant photoelectronic battery.  
Huynh Industries was also diverting some of its colony-builders to Lagrange 4 to start construction on new colonies.

As a lesser known job of Huynh Industries, as tasked by the Orb Government, the Royal Family in particular, they were also building fully automated self-defense emplacements on the colony, deploying sentry mini-stations exactly 5,000 kilometers away from the colony, outfitted with radar and LIDAR (LIght Distance and Ranging) systems, while solar-powered 150cm beam and 50cm gatling railgun turrets were affixed to the surfaces of the MATs, while mounting heavy 200cm Positron Blaster Cannons and Long-Range Cruise Missile Launchers to the colony itself, not counting the numerous CIWS turrets of beam, linear, and pulsed laser varieties.

"I can't believe that we would need to take such a measure....." Lacus whispered. Mentally, the pink-haired singer/diplomat had taken a hard beating over the past week or so, what with the revelation of the long-term betrayal of Patrick Zala, who'd been like an uncle to her for years, and the suddenness of the Loyalist evacuation. However, she couldn't imagine the pain Athrun was feeling, although he concealed it exceptionally well for someone in his position.

"It's not just the Radicals we're dealing with." Athrun commented softly. "There's Blue Cosmos and the Earth Alliance as well. We're lucky Orb is such a stout ally."

"Of course we are." Cagalli said, patting Athrun's shoulder. "You guys are the only ones other than us that have their head in a working condition." Both Coordinators smiled wanly at her.

"I guess that's why I'm lugging this along." Athrun said wryly, patting the steel-armored laptop on his lap.

"What's in it?" Lacus asked. She'd spent the time on Mendel performing live concerts to try and lift the spirits of the LINC citizens, and each one had been a big hit.

"The last of the technology LINC is trading with Orb." Athrun replied. "Some recent innovations in remote weaponry, a bit of data on nuclear reactor output modulation, but most of it is actually on an experimental interplanetary propulsion system."

"Oh?"

"Yeah, it uses a nuclear detonation to generate an enormous amount of gamma radiation and focuses it into a tight beam, which reflects off of a mirror attached to the back of a ship. Combined with the ship's engines and thrusters, it should allow fast transportation to Mars, the Asteroid Belt, and even Jupiter."

"Wow." Lacus said, charmed by the idea.

"Oh! Food's here!" Cagalli said as an automated cart wheeled it's way up, a big bowl of chicken ramen on its top. Cagalli snatched the bowl, somehow not spilling a drop of soup, and set it in her lap before laying into it. A few moments later, she noticed the bemused stare of Athrun. "What?"

"Now I see how you can be related to Kira." He remarked.

- Quis est a Iuguolo nisi a Iuguolo? -

**Orb, ****Mobile Pilot Training Facility X18999 'Enma's Locker', ****Visiting Pilots' Quarters  
**

The trio of newly christened LINC pilots by the name of Yzak Joule, Dearka Elsman, and Nicol Amalfi, were at this moment fast asleep, with the latter two resting peacefully while the former wrestled with his pillow in a dream fight with Athrun, the news of his now-certain Commanding Officer's return sending his subconscious into spirals of aggressiveness.

Then they were awakened by the strange sound of rhythmic chanting, a decidedly strange item to hear, considering that the main-line religions pretty much imploded at the beginning of Cosmic Era and Orb has no minority religions.  
Dressing and 'sneaking' out of their temporary assigned barracks, they followed the noise through ten hallways, two stairways, an elevator, and into what they had been previously introduced to as a information technology development lab. Previously, it had resembled a gathering of high-tech computers and extraneous attachments for the handling of said computers (ie, technicians). Now, it resembled a dank and dark cave made of titanium. In the center, was a literally Tetsujin-sized statue of Kira, made to perfect proportions with a wooden altar placed on a wooden dais in front of it. Before it was arrayed the entirety of the information technology specialists in the facility, dressed in dark blue robes with purple highlights.

"All praise Jesus Yamato!" Cried out one who was standing on the dais before the Kira-statue. Yzak recognized him as Bernie, the man in charge of the Artificial Intelligence Combat Assistant programming, while Dearka and Nicol recognized him as the 'guy who stuffed them in a scanner to analyze their brainwaves'.

"All praise Jesus Yamato!" Repeated Bernie's impromptu flock, bowing and scraping on the cold steel floor.

"He who delivered us from chaos and darkness into the light of logic and order!" Bernie roared.

"What the hell happened here?" Yzak muttered.

"Kira fixed the programming problem." Jack said from behind him, before promptly 'debriefing' him and running off with Yzak's pants, cackling.

Yzak stood there, his face slowly turning beetroot purple, in his shirt and heart-patterned boxers, and turned to face down the hallway Jack had run down. Suddenly, Jack ran screaming past the trio, running as though Kira and all of SpecOpsIntel's infantry section were after him, leaving Yzak's pants in his wake to smack into their owner's face.

"What the hell?" Dearka admirably summed their thoughts, as Jack quickly disappeared down the opposite end of the hallway, rounding the corner at nigh-unreachable speeds.

"JACK! Wait for me!" The trio of pilots' heads swiveled about, just in time to miss Juri crossing their field of view at a speed higher than Jack's, beyond even what they could accomplish, streaking down the hallway in a flash of blue hair.

"What-"  
"-the-"  
"-fuck?" They gaped, staring down the hallway as Jack cried in terror, before a muffled WHUMP was heard, followed by what sounded like a squeak of joy. For the next few moments, they looked at each other.

"Fuck no, I'm not getting involved." Yzak swore, turning his back on Jack, Juri, and the newly-created Cult of Kira while pulling his pants back on, and heading down the hallway away from the two J-named pilots, towards the center room. Without pause, Nicol and Dearka followed. Not three seconds later, the installation's intercom system blared, sending Liene's voice resounding throughout the complex.

_"Would Yzak Joule, Dearka Elsman, and Nicol Amalfi please report to the first Pilot Briefing Room."_

"How the hell do they know we're up?" Yzak frowned.

_"I'm looking through the security system right at you." _Dearka shuddered and glanced around, looking for the video cameras. _"You aren't gonna find them."_

"Shit Liene, that's kinda creepy." The former ZAFT pilot muttered, all the while following his two fellows.

**Briefing Room  
****0519 Orb Time**

A sad fact of the layout of the base placed the hangers and pilots' quarters on the farthest extent of the complex away from the main entry points - in case said entry points were discovered by hostile forces and subsequently targeted by high-yield weapons capable of penetrating the kilometer of dirt, rock, and space-grade hybrid hyperalloy armor; wherein only the briefing rooms and other less-than-necessary facilities would be destroyed.

It also meant a good twenty or so minutes of walking, through super-cold hallways stuffed with defensive measures on a figurative hair-trigger, and the trio of Gundam pilots were still in light pants and shirts. Which meant they froze. And that was before they saw what was being held in the hands of Karl and Liene.

"What in Glenn's name is that?" Yzak chattered, shivering as his eyes beheld what looked like a full-body suit with parts of a human skeleton made out of metal attached, including spine, ribs, limbs and joints. In the room was, besides the two, Asagi and Mayuri, Mu, and Kira, all wearing OMU-P armor.

"The Kanehada Powered Omni-Environmental Bio-Mimetic Exo-Survival Suit." Liene declared, handing the suit in his hands over to Nicol. "Everyone in the Orb military wears these, from mobile suit technicians to Shoki Team." Karl handed the two he was holding to Yzak and Dearka.

"They're graded against most small arms, and a good portion of the heavier anti-infantry weapons. Not as good as strapping a good ol' OMU to your body, but pretty damn close. And even in an OMU, you're wearing one under all that metal and ceramic." Karl said, grinning. The three pilots looked at each other.

'Er....thanks." Dearka said.

".......Well, what are you waiting for?" Karl, impatient. "Get 'em on! The OMU-P attachments don't glue onto your skin....well, actually....."

"Wait....what's going on that needs us to be in Orb-issue piloting armor?" Yzak demanded.

"What, you didn't hear?" Mu asked, slightly irritable. Between being led on about the new mobile suit that Liene had promised him, and feeling strangely abandoned, as though by some all-powerful creator, put the usually good-natured Natural in a slightly snappy mood.

"Well, I heard Kira fixed the Tetsujin's programs." Nicol said. For a few seconds, everyone in the room looked at the trio expectantly.

"Wait....that means.....Awesome!" Dearka gasped, grinning and started to look the Kanehada in his hands over for a zipper or something.

"Ah...Dearka." Liene started, "The Kanehada is put on similar to a wetsuit. And uh....it's worn _under_ clothing." It took a few seconds for the three to process that last part.

"Oh....so...." Nicol muttered, turning red for a second.

"There's a changing room back here." Mu said, stepping back and revealing the door. Nodding their thanks, the three stepped through the door and started changing inside.

"There's also OMU-P parts in there, so stick 'em on and get out." Karl called.

**Thirty minutes later**

"Alright, what's taking them?" Karl scowled.

At that point, the entrance to the briefing room opened, showing in Athrun and Cagalli.

"Hey, no one came to see us at the spaceport." Cagalli mock-whined.

"I'm sorry Princess." Liene said sarcastically, drawing a threatening scowl from her. "We'll make sure your 150-man entourage is there next time."

"You actually only need 149 men." Athrun joined in, swinging an arm around Cagalli. Cagalli, noticing Kira forcefully looking away from them, decided to have a little fun....in two senses. She leaned over and started kissing Athrun passionately, like in one of those cheesy romance novels that described actions saved for X-rated television. Initially, Athrun struggled, before relaxing and holding Cagalli at her waist. After a few seconds, Cagalli opened her eyes and diverted an iota of her attention to see Kira's reaction.

And to her surprise, found that her brother was not at all perturbed by her tongue-in-mouth kiss, and in fact had the same expression as previous. Until he glanced over and chocked back a laugh, informing Cagalli that something amusing was about to happen.

There was a whir, a click, and both Athrun and Cagalli broke off to stare back out the door at Jack, holding his pen-cam.

"What?" He asked defensively. "Paparazzi pay a hell of a lot for pictures like these-" He ducked down and over when Cagalli reached out to grab him by the collar, and dodged Athrun's flying tackle to streak cackling down the hall, for the five-hundred and fifty-seventh time in the past week. Only to all of a sudden stop, and slowly back into view.

He shoved past Athrun and Cagalli, backing up from one of the very few people that could consecutively threaten him and his multiple personalities and get away with it.

Andrew Victor Payne, Tachi Katana in hand and crimson eyes steadied on Jack's, advanced on the schizophrenic, pushing him against the briefing room walls.

"Jack," he started, "I'm sure you only seek to amuse yourself, but selling pictures of the son of the PLANTS rather antagonistic leader and the daughter of Orb's Chief Representative kissing each other.....it's a very quick road to war. Well, quicker." Andrew amended, sparing a second to glance at Kira before returning his glare to Jack, holding his hand out for the pen-cam.

For all of a half-second, two of Jack's three personalities argued the merits of obedience and disobedience.

**_"The fun factor alone is worth it!" _**Chimamare hissed, _**"And besides, the Alliance is already after us anyway. It's not like things can get any worse."**_

_"Chim, if the picture gets to the wrong people, ZAFT will be breathing down Orb's neck. Half of the population of Orb would likely balk at the sight. And then, Andrew will flay us alive and feed our remains to Gary in three pieces - skin, flesh, and bone - and then he'll somehow bind our ghosts to that creepy sword of his, and we'll be trapped in cold, nano-constructed diamond nanorod for ages. Now.......GIVE HIM THE FUCKING CAMERA!"_ Haji screeched, forcing Jack to extend his hand over Andrews, open the fingers, and drop the pen-cam into The Butcher's hand.

"Good." Andrew said. Then he crushed the camera in his hand, before stowing it in one of his pockets. "Now, if our good guests would exit the changing room, we could get the demonstration started....."

At that moment, the changing room door opened, and one of the three, now clad in OMU-P armor, flew out hard enough to slam his back into the wall. A second later, the other two stumbled out.

"Whoops." Dearka, one of the stumbling two, chuckled. "These things add a lot more strength than I thought." Yzak, the one who hit the wall, groaned.

- Quis est a Iuguolo nisi a Iuguolo? -

**Tetsujin Testing Complex  
0552**

Yzak suppressed a shudder at the sight of the eight Tetsujins. They were.....creepy. It felt like they were always watching him**. **Their ninja-like faces didn't help. He felt like they were going to sneak up and stomp him flat into the ground.

"Come on, we don't have all day." Karl called up from the one he was going to pilot.

After a few minutes, everyone was at their Tetsujin, entering the cockpit. It wasn't by a hatch on the torso, but rather one on the back of the Tetsujin's neck. Usually, a thick plate of the Tetsujin's hyperalloy armor covered the hatch, but the plate slid down onto the spine when the pilot was boarding or dismounting. When the hatch opened, it revealed especially viscous Non-Newtonian Smart Fluid, through which the pilots crawled to reach the command chair, an ergonomic design made of smart materials that automatically conformed themselves to the pilot's body. Unlike most mobile suits, which used forward-placed viewscreens, and were rather cramped, the Tetsujin's cockpit was a spherical design with the command chair floating in the Smart Fluid, and the entire inner surface was covered with hundreds of micro-screens that offered a 360 panoramic display.

Controls were a mix of age-old standard pedals and joysticks with new Morgenroete innovations. The foot pedals, attached to the chair, featured toe and heel hooks that clamp onto the OMU-P's boots and allowed a wider range of motion than the up-and-down pedals of Alliance and ZAFT designs. Likewise, the 'joystick' controls, if they could even be called that anymore, were no longer based on the arms of the command chair. Instead, they're pair of combined power glove/forearm armature/joy stick controller that offer a greater degree of control over the suit as well as a wider range of complex movements.

It took a bit of time for the LINC pilots to get used to it, and even Kira and the other Orbites too a second to acclimatize themselves.

In the control booth about twenty meters up from the floor, Andrew and Liene were with the Morgenroete technicians overseeing this. Andrew keyed the intercom, leaning forward into the microphone as he started speaking.

"Kira and the others have already been briefed on this, but the Tetsujin's control system utilizes a combination of standard mobile suit controls - if rather advanced - and a new device called a Superconducting Quantum Interference Device, short-named SQUID. The SQUID reads your brainwaves, partially as a security measure and partially to add an extra dimension to mobile suit control. The latter part involves pressure sensors spread throughout the Tetsujin's structure, with the SQUID relaying the information gleaned from them, essentially allowing you to feel what the Tetsujin does - to a point."

"That's kinda creepy." Dearka muttered as he tried to move the Tetsujin. It moved.....very slowly. Such that a aged vehicle could outrun it. "Alright, what gives?"

"The control system is designed in levels of ability from one to nine. Level one moves slowly. It's supposed to scale to each pilot individually, just keep moving it." Andrew explained. Dearka thus continued to slowly walk the Tetsujin forward.

"Mr. Elsman's Tetsujin has now switched to Level 2 operation." One of the techs dutifully reported. Then, a Tetsujin blurred past Dearka's mobile suit, blue-white plasma jet flares erupting out from its backpack as the Hybrid Plasma Pulse Jets kicked into gear. "Mr. Yamato's Tetsujin is already on Level 4 operation. Mr. Zala's suit is advancing rapidly through Level 3 operation - scratch that, he's level 4 too."

Athrun's Tetsujin, which had been starting up into a jog, suddenly fired off its jets and chased after Kira.

Dearka stopped, staring at the two. They started chasing each other around the square-kilometer or so of space, apparently just playing around.

"Damn it!" Yzak hissed over the comm, stuttering his suit forward. A second later, it fell over when he tried too hard, literally tripping the Tetsujin over its own feet.

It took about twenty minutes to get Yzak back up, Dearka and Nicol ever so slowly grabbing his Tetsujin's shoulders and lifting it up. At that point, Jack had gotten up to Level 3 and was jogging around the area, and sometimes detoured to hop over the slowly rising Yzak.

Mu and Karl kept along the wall, the more experience SpecOpsIntel Colonel coaching the former OMNI Lieutenant in the nuances of Tetsujin piloting. Unsurprisingly, the ace was quick on his feet and the quickly progressed to hand-to-hand sparring. Here, the blond pilot had the edge with his preternatural reaction timing.

Eventually, despite the interference of Jack, Yzak was righted. They then started doing their own things, Yzak trying out some of the martial arts he and the others had been taught in Redcoat training, while Dearka utilized a light to start making shadow puppets. Nicol, however, pulled up the Tetsujin's systems and equipment listing.

"Frequent Update Customizable Metaprogramming Extended System?" He frowned, studying the OS.

"It's a new operating system I developed." Kira explained, even as he continued his little game of tag with Athrun. "I used a prototype system in the Augury's OS to help with the Equipment Pack systems. The name basically says it all, it updates frequently with new data by linking to Orb's military servers, and is completely customizable by the pilot."

"What about the rest?" Yzak asked, slowly moving his Tetsujin through a pose. _Damn if this thing isn't perfectly balanced........_ Jack came in and sideswiped Yzak, using the Tetsujin's four taloned, multi-jointed toes to grab the leg of Yzak's Tetsujin while doing a break-dancing type spin on the mobile suit's hands. Yzak growled and broke the grip, before turning and pouncing on top of Jack's Tetsujin, bashing hyperalloy on hyperalloy.

"When in use, the system studies itself, its pilot's tactics, strategies and skills, and its enemies, and automatically modifies its programming to best suit all three as it develops. It's a learning computer basically."

"I notice that the acronym spells out F.U.C.M.E." Athrun noted. "Any subtle message there?"

"What would you say if you were confronted by a Tetsujin while piloting a ZONGS?" Kira grinned.

- Quis est a Iuguolo nisi a Iuguolo? -

A/N: This time, it was Alex Yamato. Funny thing about me, even when I finish a design, I still obsess over it.

("I'll say. You took a few years with my design, back when I started out as a Transformer....")

Anyway, that finishes up the 'Departure From Brutality' Arc, next up is the Watchers/Argonaut/OMNI-focused 'Departure From Civility' Arc.

("Poor Theta 9. He didn't deserve the professional humility of what you did to him")

Shut up you idiot, no spoilers!

("The name of Kira's Gundam is the A- Um....is that a Covenant Carbine?")

This things puts out enough radiation per shot to cook a full-grown elephant inside-out. I suggest you shut up.

FraserMage: Yep.

Unleash the Shadow: Thank you

Alex Yamato: Actually, they don't. Mainly because whenever something 'combines' beyond something like and G-Defenser and 00/0 Raiser, it reminds me of Super Robot stuff, which causes me sickness. But, yeah, some definite Gundam 00 mentions in this story, and there willl be a heck of a lot more in S2. Note, however, that its not Canon G00.

G. Wagers: I wouldn't really say it was tech-devoted, more like....exposition.

Infinite Freedom: Two Jacks isn't so bad......erm.....well......

EternalKnight219: That he was.

The Baka Brigade: Trust me, it's a doozy.....and Minovsky Particles don't have mutagenic effects I believe.....didn't Newtypes come about as a result of human space colonization?

Mathiasosx: If it works....and it wasn't begging...I just said the magic word. Twice. With exclamation point. No begging this time, I swear. And yes, two Jack's are definitely going to be a bit.....well....messy.

EMT: It hurts my professional pride when I forget, or purposefully procrastinate. It was fun writing it too.

somebody: Have you seen Gundam 00? That's actually why Velshard made the Tetsujin so....so.....OP.

Mordalfus Grea: Yep. But I don't think there's going to be quite so many.....It was actually Yzak in his new simulated Gundam after dicing the Strategos, might want to go over that part again.

("THE GUNDAM IS NAMED-")

THEWW!BOOM!

(T-that's not the Carbine....thats the F-Fuel Rod G-")

THEWW!BOOM!

It's more satisfying. And be thankful I armored your CPU and black box.

Knightmare Gundam of Ni


	45. Omake: Orb Intelligence Report 1

Orb Intelligence Agency Profiles (I)

Name: Edward Gabriel Abaddon

Sex: Male

Rank: Vice-Admiral

Position: Commander of Watcher Special Operations Group

Genetic Type: Supposedly Natural, Probably Coordinator

Genetic Mutations: N/A

SEED: Possibly

Nanomachine Enhancement: N/A

Cybernetic Enhancement: N/A

IQ: 159

Date of Birth: August 16, 38 CE

Age: 33

Height: 2.02 Meters

Weight: 67 Kilograms

Hair Color: Black

Eye Color: Dark Blue

Skin: White, Pasty

Blood Type: A

Ethnicity: Caucasian

Nationality: Atlantic Federation

Known Relations: Ethan Abaddon, (Deceased Father)  
Jessaline Abaddon, (Deceased Mother)  
Joseph Abaddon, (Deceased Brother)  
????? (Sister, Unknown Status)  
Kaitlin Abaddon, (Deceased Wife)  
Benjamin Abaddon, (Deceased Son)  
Lena Abaddon, (Daughter)

Psychological Profile: Dedicated, Charismatic, Honorable, Pragmatic

Political Leaning: Neutral

Pilots: CGAT-000-01-INC Praetor

Other Distinguishing Traits: Generally clean-shaven, military-regulation haircut, left-handed.

History: Born August 16, 38 CE in former Virginia, Edward Gabriel Abaddon was a straight A student for his entire adolescent life, from his first ever report card up to his graduation from a military academy with a master's degree in Military Strategy and a bachelor's degree in Psychology. Upon his actual enlistment into OMNI Enforcer's space arm, Abaddon showed initiative and a 'cool demeanor' even in combat during the opening shots of the Valentine War.

From this point onward, Abaddon was fast-tracked, presumably by his older brother Joseph and his father's own military connections, albeit this fact was supposedly kept a secret from him. Nonetheless, Edward Abaddon showed himself handy in multiple skills desired by the military. Thus, he was eventually assigned to the 'Watcher' Special Operations Group after some combat experience in multiple theaters, including the Battle of Junius Seven and a stint on the Grimaldi Front. Somehow, over time, Abaddon managed to replace much of the Blue Cosmos-affiliated Watcher members with soldiers and personnel that he had personally served with, who shared his decidedly neutral political outlook.

According to records from the Morgenroete facility on Heliopolis, Abaddon was a staunch supporter of the G Project, although his familiarity with the Constantine mobile suit in combat suggests a similar level of involvement in the Byzantine Project. Further investigation reveals frequent visits to sites suspected to be factories and development facilities for Byzantine mobile units, including the 'secret' facility on the dark side of the moon, an arctic base, and several Debris Belt locations.

In the opening stages of the war, Abaddon lost the majority of his family to Rau Le Creuset, who had been a 'guest' of theirs shortly beforehand. Apparently, this ignited a severe vendetta between the remnants of the Abaddon family and Le Creuset, which Edward and Lena have vowed to carry out.  
Edward was known to have had two siblings, one of which being his brother Joseph who was killed by Kira Yamato following the Cyclops detonation at the Grimaldi Front, the other being a sister whose status at this time is unknown.

Aside from Lena, Abaddon had another child, Benjamin, who served under Joseph Abaddon. Apparently, he was killed when Joseph set off the Cyclops under the Grimaldi Front. Judging by how, after his funeral, Joseph's grave was desecrated (by a mobile suit with tread uncannily similar to that of Edward's Praetor advanced Constantine/prototype Strategos) it would seem this affected the Vice-Admiral profoundly.

Edward Abaddon's name first came under review when his Celestial-Class Ship, the Grigori, opened fire on the Barachiel after launching a team of pre-Natural OS Constantines in order to gain test data to develop said OS, showing a pragmatic and ruthless outlook. From then on, Abaddon and the Grigori showed up numerous times during the Barachiel's voyage to Orb, culminating in a battle introducing Abaddon's daughter, Lena, who managed to destroy the Kuro Tenshi Augury.

Recent reports from intelligence sources, both agent and viral, it would seem Abaddon has been temporarily reassigned to JOSH-A, along with the entire Watcher Grigori detachement for reinforcements and further reassignment.

Skills: According to recovered ZAFT mobile suit camera records, Kira Yamato's first-hand account, and hacked simulation records, Abaddon is a fairly skilled mobile suit pilot, the most telling example being fighting Kira to a draw in a non-Gundam mobile suit.

Other files indicate Abaddon to be a master of firearms and charismatic commander, along with somewhat better-than-average marksmanship and a capacity for succeeding in suicidal situations, to the point that some of the more religious members of OMNI have credited him with 'the devil's luck'.  
However, it seems that his talents in close-quarters combat are much, much less than proficient, with records of said training stating several incidents of injury to both himself and others in the surrounding area, enemy and ally alike. Apparently, only his family's influence allowed this fact to be passed over when considering him for promotion.

Name: David Sariel

Sex: Male

Date of Birth: December 18, 42 CE

Age: 29

Height: 1.96 Meters

Weight: 65 Kilograms

Blood Type: O

Nationality: Atlantic Federation

Position: Commander, Second-In-Command of 'Watcher' Special Operations Group

Known Relations: Hank Sariel (Father)  
Gina Sariel (Mother)

Genetic Type: Natural

Psychological Profile: Extremely Loyal, Moderate Paranoia, very slightly optimistic

Political Leaning: Neutral

History: Born in former Quebec, David Sariel was an average student at best, and joined the military only to ensure a decent source of income.

Before his enlistment, various records show that the local police suspected him of various crimes, ranging from pick-pocketing to grand theft auto (with the subsequent sale of stolen vehicle).

However, barely a year after his enlistment, it was discovered that he had an aptitude for intelligence operations, and was transferred to the Operations arm of OMNI Intelligence. He only lasted two years after Intelligence training before he was honorably discharged for being 'far too gung-ho'. This basically translates from OMNI Intelese into English as being too straightforward and honest.

Eventually, he was brought back as Abaddon's Executive Officer after a year of using his newly-gained skills to run a small criminal empire in Australia. Apparently, the two had become acquainted to a significant degree during one of Sariel's previous Intelligence operations, and had impressed Abaddon to the point that the Vice-Admiral wanted him for the Watcher SOG.

As with Abaddon, Sariel first came to OIA's attention for his part in the skirmishes between the Grigori and the Barachiel. As of yet, however, he has played no real part in the combat, although recent scuttlebutt among OMNI personnel indicate a large role for him in the coming operation.

Skills: Several OIA agents placed in OMNI Intel indicate that Sariel is particularly skilled at stealth and disguise, as a part of his OMNI IntelOps training. He has apparently exhibited incredible marksmanship with handguns and the like, as well as a peculiar skill with various knives. Helping the disguise aspect of his intelligence work was his mastery of multiple languages and dialects, ranging from French, to German, to Japanese, and many, many others.

It seems that his years as a thief and law-breaker, combined with his intelligence training, have equipped Sariel with an uncanny sense of paranoia, with eyewitness reports from former OMNI agents who worked with him crediting Sariel with saving entire operations due to 'a small feeling', and with Sariel himself escaping counter-intelligence agents and police of various nations by mere seconds by following a hunch.

Little else can be known about Sariel, seeing as he appears to have cultivated an almost unworthy atmosphere about him, causing most agents to disregard him as a credible threat or information source. However, it seems he is far more than merely Abaddon's XO.

- Quis est a Iuguolo nisi a Iuguolo? -

Alright, a little side info to prepare for the next arc. By the way, K'GoN wanted to deliver a little message.

("ORB IS WATCHING YOU!")

Yeah, he desperately needs a reformat. Even if it is true.

("Well, if it weren't for _someone_ blasting me in the face with a Fuel Rod Gun - twice! - I might not have a few more _terabytes_ of radiation-scrambled data!")

Oh, stop being such a toaster.

("You take that back!")

Yeesh, you're sensitive for something made of fricking titanium

Mathiasosx: Maybe I should threaten K'GoN with video game weaponry more. Doesn't need it, he's got two extra people in his head. I'll R&R.

Alex Yamato: Thank you. Just so long as no one has Mirage Colloid...actually, with Velshard's tech, not even then. It freaks you out? Really? He probably shouldn't have, but he is Jack.

Eternal Knight 219: Might wanna book a jet. I'll check them out.

Unleash the Shadow: I would hope so. Ok, Ok, sheesh. You try balancing a sister, two Advanced Placement classes, and all the normal stress of high school......damn, now I sound like my classmates.

("Nah, they're more masculine. Even the women....ah crud, now it's the Cain from Mass Effect")

(Compact thermonuclear detonation sounds)

Knightmare Gundam of Ni

(Edit: Whoops, accidentally wrote 'Heliopolis' instead of 'Junius Seven' in Edward's profile. My bad.) 4/30/2010


	46. Phase 29: Civility, Part 1

_**Disclaimer and Notes of Ownership:**_ I do not own the Gundam Franchise, or any of the characters from said franchise. If I did, I would probably use the massive fortunes resulting from that to develop real-life mobile suits and conquer the world, with a corresponding level of glee and madness.  
("He actually drew up plans for it too.")  
I do however, own all the technical designs labeled with PGAT, XHMA, MMA, XSBF, XABF, PMU, MLWS, CI, CPH and SDDGN in their alphanumeric designations, along with a portion of those labeled XGAT. I own Jack Kagizaki's mind, body and soul, as well as those of Captain Gary Shimizu and his Shoki Team. Along with that goes the Abaddons, the Grigori, and good ol' David Sariel. Drake too. If anyone should use any of these without my permission...well, I'll mope. And then I'll find you and crush you underneath a tank. Filled with high-explosives. And all the mopey, whiny Gundam protagonists that didn't grow something resembling a spine.  
Similarly, Velshard has dibs on almost the entire line of replacement units for ZAFT, excluding one. He has administrative privileges over the Noctoraptor (Enhanced), Ferox, and Verin Gundams. He also has ownage over the horrifying abomination or deification (depends on your point of view) of all that's good and pure in this universe, otherwise called the Tetsujin. The beings of Andrew Victor Payne, Karlton William Hertz, and the Van Dalygon family are belong to him.  
The Megalodon design belongs to...well Kojiro Kun gave me the idea.  
The ZONGS design belongs to animefan29.  
00virtuezero's contributions include the Gundams Repulse and Outlaw, and his OCs Wesley Mercis, and Michael Archer.

Gundam Seed: Killer's Realm

Phase 29: Civility, Part 1

**JOSH-A, Alaska  
March 29, 71 CE  
5:29 AM (Local Time)**

David Sariel, second-in-command of the Watcher Special Operations Group, expert intelligence officer and overall master of hand-to-hand combat, was currently dressed in an athletic undershirt and combat pants, both liberally soaked in sweat. This was due to the sparring match he found himself in, against his friend and superior's daughter, Lena Abaddon.

Most other such military friendships would see the officer kindly and cautiously tutoring his friend's offspring in order to teach her how to defend herself.

Sariel, however, found himself desperately fighting to keep ahead of Lena, which considering the fact that she was a product of the Extended Natural Research Division that modified humans to be more effective in combat against Coordinators, only made sense. It made even more sense considering that, really, she was a Coordinator as well.

It still irked him that he was being worked over by a teenage girl.

Out of nowhere, Lena launched a haymaker at his face with speed beyond his, and would most likely have smashed his nose against his face if not for David's startled duck, which he followed by snapping a kick at Lena's elbow. Quicker than vipers, the girl pulled her arm back and launched a spinning kick at David, the latter ducking under the blow and darting forward to strike as she landed back on her feet.

Muruta Azrael, walking through the door with full intentions to talk to the elder Abaddon, was startled when Sariel flew through the air to slam with a sickening crunch into the wall next to him. The tycoon stared as, with a sound like a squeaky toy, the highly experienced and skilled intelligence officer was peeled off of the wall by gravity to fall onto the ground. After a second, Azrael decided to ignore the spectacle, instead walking past Sariel and Lena without another glance, to Edward, who'd been watching the two from the benches.

The Vice-Admiral regarded his unofficial superior with a calculatingly blank stare, dark blue eyes boring into the blond-headed leader of Blue Cosmos.

"I have a mission for you Abaddon." Muruta said cooly, proffering a file. "ZAFT is set to attack here soon." Abaddon's mask dissolved as he frowned, swiftly recalling the intelligence reports he and Sariel, along with his daughter and Thatcher, had read. Most of the reports, made by various agents placed in the PLANTS, had pinpointed Panama and the Mass Driver there as the target. It made sense, as ZAFT would likely want to prevent the OMNI Space Forces from getting reinforcements and such from the surface, allowing ZAFT to leisurely smash the Fleets into so much orbiting debris.

"They played us." Sariel growled from his position on the floor, only for the sound to turn into a 'meep' when Lena poked him in the side with her boot.

"Most certainly." Abaddon said as he took the file and began flipping through the pages. As he went, his brow furrowed deeper and deeper. "It doesn't have anything on the source."

"Need-to-know, Vice-Admiral." The blond-headed leader of Blue Cosmos said. "Suffice it to say that the Joint Chiefs are satisfied by the veracity of the information." As he exited the room, Azrael could almost feel the chill of the three glares directed at his back.

Alone now, the three Watchers commanders huddled around the file as Edward paged through it, each one scanning it thoroughly, regardless of their orientation to it. After a few minutes, David straightened, a scowl on his face.

"Something's not kosher here." He hissed, eyes darting back and forth. Edward recognized this as one of Sariel's infamous 'bad feelings'. "They want us to stick around and help defend the base while they evacuate equipment and personnel? It's at least two weeks until the attack. Why not just abandon it period?"

"And look at the force allotments." Lena said, jabbing a finger at a section. "They're all Eurasians."

"We're to retreat at a signal?" Abaddon read out loud. He frowned then, as the entire situation gave him a profound sense of deja vu.

- Quis est a Iuguolo nisi a Iuguolo? -

**Pilot's Quarters, Grigori, JOSH-A**

It took a few weeks, but Michael Archer, one of two recent additions to the Watchers and G-Project pilot was happy to say that his pinky had healed remarkably well, and his ankle was back in tip-top shape. Of course, he still had to deal with his room-mate...

"That's what you get for flirting with disaster Archer." Wesley Mercis said from his seat at his desk. "Not only is she the Vice-Admiral's daughter, but you said you got the feeling that he wanted to rip off your arm a few weeks ago. It would probably be prudent to listen to that sixth sense of yours every once in a while."

"You, my spiky-haired friend, need to get laid. BIG TIME." That elicited a harsh glare from Wes, to Micheal's grinning pleasure. "Besides, we're in the big leagues here. Sure, I may suffer broken bones and such, but it'll be worth it in the end. Special Forces rules are extremely lax after all."

"I'll be sure to leave flowers at your grave." Wes shot back.

"Ensigns!" Came the decidedly feminine, yet somehow frightening, voice of Lena Abaddon. They both digested the sound for a second before instinctively darting of the bed, out of the chair, and out the door to form up in their civvie clothes before their Commander. The moment they saw her, Wes could tell there was going to be more trouble. The BCPU Pilot uniform, while basically a variation on the standard piloting uniform OMNI mobile armor pilots used, was a bit more body-conforming, primarily due to the fact that some of the augmentations made BCPU's tougher than the average Natural, allowing a lessening of padding.

Thus, Lena's curvaceous figure and assets were... well apparent to the two Ensigns.

Wes shuddered at the thoughts of what his partner might do. And then he saw how Lena looked at the two of them.

"Today, we are going to have some fun." Commander Lena Abaddon said, with quite a venomous grin and the tone of a rapist. "The schedule is a training simulator course against the combat data we have of the Augury, with Kira Yamato as its pilot. You two are going in on your G-Units."

For a while, the assignment of the day seemed great. Simple simulator courses? Both Wes and Michael ate those for breakfast.

They did, however, vastly underestimate the abilities of even a simulated Augury pieced together from combat recordings.

**Simulator Room, Simulation A-779C-10**

"Wes, dodge left, dodge left, he's got that cannon aimed right at you!" This was followed by the supersonic screech of more than half a metric ton of hyper-accelerated shell passing by a mobile suit's audio-receivers, as the simulated Augury's linear shot just scraped by the simulated Repulse's torso armor.

In his simulator cockpit, Wes swore to heaven above and hell below as he struggled with the standardized controls to bring his Gundam's Ares Beam Cannon up, trying to target the fast-moving prototype Gundam. This specific version of the Augury was the black winged one that Commander Abaddon had disposed of. Originally, neither of the two friends and comrades had thought much of this feat.

Now though, confronted with the cycling plasma blade of its sword and the ridiculous muzzle velocity of its shield-mounted linear cannon, they actually appreciated their commander's feat, and was now glad Lena had destroyed it and its pilot.

This did not make them feel better about facing it in simulations, especially considering the fact that these simulator cockpits did their very best to perfectly copy what the pilot actually felt during real battle. The construct was mounted on a giant arm that jerked to and from to approximate the rapid movement changes and physical hits, and a rapidly changing temperature control unit to simulate heat one would feel from near misses from beam weapons.

For this simulation, both Wesley and Michael were piloting data-reconstructed versions of their Gundams, the XGAT-117 Repulse and the XGAT-123 Outlaw, respectively. The Repulse was a unit with aerodynamic-designed curved armor, with feather-like plates of Chobham armor on its shoulders and a birdlike sensor crest on its head. Its limbs and head were painted silver, while chest and shoulders were navy-blue trimmed with black. A large attachment to its backpack added twin enormous SCRamjet Boosters, as well as four extra electrostatic ion thrusters and an experimental magnetic field repulsor.  
The Outlaw was blockier than the Repulse, with thicker leg structure, angular armor, and a head that incorporated a telephoto multispectrum camera into the crux of the V-fin sensors. The coloring scheme was similar to the Repulse, only with white limbs and faceplate while the head, torso, and shoulders were black, with the chest and waist trimmed with red.

Muttering lowly in his helmet, Wes fired off a beam from the Ares, the Hyper-Impulse plasma projectile lancing through the air to intercept the Augury. Or, actually its shield. Then the beast accelerated and smashed right into the Repulse. In the next instant, the Augury's enormous beam-saw sword was raised high and sliced down, set to bisect the new Gundam. Only the timely interception of the blade with a beam saber saved Wes from an ignominious, simulated end.

Which still had a large chance of happening, as the cycled magnetic fields of the Black Augury's sword ever so slowly consumed the plasma of the Repulse's beam saber and incorporated it into its own beam blade, making the edge denser, hotter, and more destructive, and pushing both beams closer to the Repulse.

Michael, in his Outlaw Gundam, about a kilometer away from the air-dueling G-Units, readied the 95mm High-Energy Beam Gun mounted on the left side of its backpack, the long-barreled weapon extending out for a total of five meters. The plasma charge built up, until Michael pulled the trigger, firing a turquoise-colored beam that trailed electricity in its ionized path. The projectile struck one of the Augury's propulsion wings head on, melting through the already heated alloys and releasing a large amount of plasma into the air as the fuel lines ruptured and spewed clouds of ions and free electrons.

Smartly, the computer-controlled Gundam released the Repulse from its blade-lock, instead choosing to fall towards the land below. On the way down, the Augury ejected both thruster-wings, keeping the main backpack, and landed heavily on its feet. The area the simulation took place in was a large and dense forest in Eastern Europe, with trees bigger than Mobile Suits in some cases, which provided heavy cover, even for a Gundam. And it was dark.

So, when the Augury moved into a crouched run, it was difficult to tell where the Gundam was, even with the sounds of it felling trees and crushing tree trunks. Michael paced the Outlaw along the forest's edge, while Wes and the Repulse kept above, looking down with the Ares ready. After about two minutes, Michael unfolded the weapon on the Outlaw's other shoulder, a 350mm gunlauncher.

"Linking my feed over to you." Wes reported. The sensor 'crest' of the Repulse was a general all-type suite, capable of gathering information through sonic vibration, radar, and other types of fairly mundane sensory systems. Not quite the most powerful of such systems, the sensor crest still had much in the way of short-range detection. Combined with the rather more powerful sensors of the Outlaw though, they were plenty to track and target the Augury.

"Yes!" Michael crowed as the outline of the Augury appeared on the Outlaw's sensor screen, moving at a brisk pace of approximately 57 kilometers per hour. "Eat ionized napalm!" A single pull of the trigger fired the shell, launching it in a ballistic arc to impact on its target over a kilometer away. The impact-detonator in the shell's tip ignited a mix of various highly-flammable gases and chemicals, along with napalm and magnesium. A brief, secondary layer of heat-resistant and reinforced material kept the resultant thermal energy contained long enough to convert the mixture into a high-temperature plasma, which exploded outward, setting the forest aflame, and practically disintegrated most of the matter at its impact point. Which, in fact, was the left shoulder of the Augury.

Both of the Ensigns grinned as the simulation portrayed a likely scenario of the napalm/plasma melting through the Gundam's torso to its energy and propulsive systems, including plasma conversion chambers and magnetic acceleration systems, causing much of the Augury to expand, explode, and a few other words that begin with 'ex-'.

"Hmph. Good work you two." Lena's voice came in over the simulator speakers, bringing a grin to Michaal's face and a smile to Wes's. "Now, let's see how you deal with this." The Augury reappeared, again with the black-colored winged pack that made it so infamous in its latter period of existence. And then, another one, this time equipped with the melee-based Cavalier pack resolved into existence. Then the heavy armaments Juggernaut pack showed up, equipped on yet a third one.

"Oh no..." Wesley said, resolving this enhanced training situation with his earlier feeling. Out of nowhere, he in the Repulse was smashed out of the sky by a winged blur of an Augury blitzing about with the Angelos pack. As the Repulse fell, entire platoons of Augurys shimmered into the simulation, swarming around either of the two Gundams.

"Crap."

- Quis est a Iuguolo nisi a Iuguolo? -

**189 Kilometers North of JOSH-A, Alaska  
1 Hour Later**

"I'm not in the mood for your pathetically stale excuses! I told you I wanted the system brought up to my specifications now!" Azrael growled, appearing somewhat like a rampaging teenager in mood.

"And I told **you** that it would take time to compile the data and rewrite the programs to compensate for the gross differences in mass and energy, as well as to modify the control programs to accommodate the different armaments." Drake's voice hissed, gas mask laboring to extract as much recyclable gas from his exhalations.

The two were in Drake's complex, specifically a room dug as deep under the permafrost as could in the three years since Drake had joined Blue Cosmos. It served as his home and office, a stuffy and warm room about fifty meters square, with four enormous display screens serving as walls, with twenty-five column-like data caches and computer interfaces rising from the floor to the ceiling, where they connected to and controlled every piece of electronics in the base. In the center was the pillar serving as the elevator shaft connecting the room to the rest of the complex. The south-eastern quadrant was sectioned off from the rest by thickened titanium bars, with a single solid door in the western part of this 'cage'. The lights in that area were dimmed.

"Well hurry it up! The Mephistopheles must be ready for Operation Retribution! On Earth Orb is a pathetically small island nation, it's only claim to fame being its technological advancement! In space it's a juggernaut of industrial power! We need the Mephistopheles to crush it!" Muruta fairly growled. The pair were in the northern part of the room, Drake facing the screen and Azrael facing him. At the moment, the screen was scrolling through enormous amounts of binary computer code, the alterations appearing too swiftly to see before the screen switched to another segment of the system Drake was working on.

"Azrael, when you practically triple the mass and energy consumption of a warship, and then switch a large portion of its armaments over to a technology only recently completed, that hasn't even been prototyped, caution must be taken in order to ensure that nothing unfortunate - like, say, the overloading of the reactor in trying to provide enough energy- happens."

"You made that technology!"

"And when utilizing a completely new propulsion technology - or rather, an old propulsion technology brought back to stunning life, one must carefully simulate the effects of it before programming a system to modulate it's output! And while on this subject, I must note the sheer insanity of deriving this technology straight from these specific plans rather than going back through national data banks for the original project plans and developing straight through those." Drake continued, ignoring Azrael's growing protests and complaints. "Still, I assure you, the Mephistopheles' operation system will be finished, downloaded onto a heavily secured data storage unit, and delivered into orbit long before Operation Retribution launches. And if you would please, leave me to my work."

The businessman/terrorist stood there for a moment, staring at Drake and making subtle throttling motions behind the engineer, before he retreated to the elevator, fuming. As he drew closer to the shaft, and the enormous cage, a sound that seemed like the even mixture of a crocodile's hiss and a wolf's growl, emanated from the area, and almost stopped Muruta short, before the head Blue Cosmonaut powered past the fear the sound inspired and entered the elevator, hitting the button that would start him on his extended journey back to the surface, through a varied array of elevator shafts and other passive defenses.

The growling/hissing continued, until Drake motioned toward the beast in the cage calmingly. Then, the viewscreen blacked out, the program code disappearing, before reactivating to show a face.

"That's good. He doesn't seem to suspect you." The man spoke.

"An irony, Mr. Bogeyman. They need me too much to think about how true my reasons for aiding them may be." Drake replied. He moved away from the terminal to the door of the cage, the tattered fragments of his clothes trailing from the belts and buckles. "In the end, if they should decide that they do not need me after I provide them with the Mephistopheles' programs, they may begin to suspect. But it's too late now."

- Quis est a Iuguolo nisi a Iuguolo? -

A/N: I'm back!

("Let me guess: You took an extra week because you couldn't remember the japanese version?")

Of course not!

("For future reference, it's tadaima")

Whatever. So anyway, a lot happening here in this Phase. Abaddons' are getting antsy, and Sariel is getting his 'feelings'. The Watcher's training is stepping up a notch, and foreshadowing occurs in the den of the Dragon.

("Every vacation you take, you come back trying to sound like one of those professional authors. Or, failing that, those guys on TV shows who go 'last time, on such-such")

In any event, after the end of this arc, we should be dropping back into the war full-on.

("Weren't you going to mention why you took a week off?")

Ah yes. My birthday present to myself. I can now buy the more entertaining video games without an adult accompanying me...as soon as I acquire an ID or driver's license.

Now, onto replies.

G. Wagers: I don't suppose this is considered plot advancement, is it?

Velshard: Why Sariel, specifically?

00virtuezero: I hate to say it, but I think Michael and Wesley are devolving more into the comedy of the Watchers. Also, if you don't mind, I'd like to modify the Repulse and Outlaw more.  
As for Abaddon's sister, that's going to be a good story in the future.  
OK.  
Ah yes...The two Jacks. Well, imagine how much more battlefield humor we'll have, huh?  
You're gonna have to be more specific. There's a lot of dead folks in that family.

Alex Yamato: He promises more, and he promises more awesomesauce lathered on top.  
You have to understand how frustrating it can be for programmer most computer companies would kill to possess when one of what promises to be a work on the scale of Leonardo Da Vinci starts to break down for what would appear to you to be no apparent reason.

hahahaha: Technically, they're seperate for each model, but yeah, I thought it was funny.

Huheh: Thank you.

Knightmare Gundam of Ni


	47. Phase 30: Civility, Part 2

_**Disclaimer and Notes of Ownership:**_ I do not own the Gundam Franchise, or any of the characters from said franchise. If I did, I would probably use the massive fortunes resulting from that to develop real-life mobile suits and conquer the world, with a corresponding level of glee and madness.  
("He actually drew up plans for it too.")  
I do however, own all the technical designs labeled with PGAT, XHMA, MMA, XSBF, XABF, PMU, MLWS, CI, CPH and SDDGN in their alphanumeric designations, along with a portion of those labeled XGAT. I own Jack Kagizaki's mind, body and soul, as well as those of Captain Gary Shimizu and his Shoki Team. Along with that goes the Abaddons, the Grigori, and good ol' David Sariel. Drake too. If anyone should use any of these without my permission...well, I'll mope. And then I'll find you and crush you underneath a tank. Filled with high-explosives. And all the mopey, whiny Gundam protagonists that didn't grow something resembling a spine.  
Similarly, Velshard has dibs on almost the entire line of replacement units for ZAFT, excluding one. He has administrative privileges over the Noctoraptor (Enhanced), Ferox, and Verin Gundams. He also has ownage over the horrifying abomination or deification (depends on your point of view) of all that's good and pure in this universe, otherwise called the Tetsujin. The beings of Andrew Victor Payne, Karlton William Hertz, and the Van Dalygon family are belong to him.  
The Megalodon design belongs to...well Kojiro Kun gave me the idea.  
The ZONGS design belongs to animefan29.  
00virtuezero's contributions include the Gundams Repulse and Outlaw, and his OCs Wesley Mercis, and Michael Archer.

Author's Note: Normally, these go after the chapter, but I felt I should inform you readers of this before you get confused. I am not going to use the Latin words as scene separators anymore. Instead, I'm using the style I use in Code Geass: The Demon and The Dragon, where I used a descriptor of the character that the scene is in the perspective of. e.g., 'The Killer' = Kira, 'The Madman' = Jack, etc. I'm also going to be going back and changing the rest of the chapters to this format.

Gundam Seed: Killer's Realm

Phase 30: Civility, Part 2

- The Inventor and The Destroyer -

**Drake Complex, Level 27- Terminal, Alaska  
April 2, 71 CE  
2:27 PM (Local Time)**

Drake sat still, contemplating the wall-sized screen.

The Northern half of this last level was bare, and was where the doors of the elevator opened up to. It was where Drake paced while thinking, where he exercised, and where he occasionally played games with his pet, Rex. The south-eastern quarter was the cage for Rex, lots of room for the little critter to exercise, sleep, eat, and defecate. The south-western quadrant was Drake's bedchamber. And office. Here Drake slept and meditated. And, when the mood struck him, surfed the web.

He was amused by the sheer amount of collective hate-mail that went from Blue Cosmonaut to Coordinator, from Patrick Zala (PZ) Elitist to Natural, and from both to Orb. And then a warship's tonnage of spam that was sent in reply from Orb. Oh, they really should know better. It actually made him wince to see what Morgenroete and Huynh Industries employees did to the e-mail accounts, and presumably computers, of those spamming them.

His bed was comfy. Large enough for him to stretch out arms and legs without them hanging over the edges. His desk was of the sort to make CEOs and other high-class executives embarrassed of theirs, and his personal computer was a laptop that could potentially become Skynet. Well, not really. Maybe HAL.

At the moment, Drake was watching the news, using maybe half of his western wall-screen.

_"...and the Alliance politicians are still pressing Orb to join, stating that it is the responsibility of all nations of Earth to help resist the Space Monsters."_

"I don't believe it." Drake grumbled. "They're actually stupid enough to use that term in public?"

_"Orb officials responded by saying that Orb has no stake in this conflict, and will remain a neutral entity."_

"And woe betide he who draws the ire of The Beast." Drake sighed, switching the screen off. "How do you feel about this Edward?"

"I work for fools." The Abaddon said, reclining in one of the real leather chairs that Drake had scattered about for the inevitable prospect of guests. Despise him Edward might, Drake shared many of the Vice Admiral's views on the geopolitical situation. "They think they can bring Chief Representative Athha around to their viewpoint? One of Orb's chief tenants is human rights, and as such, they will not and cannot discriminate against their own Coordinator population. Even more damning is the fact that Athha himself shares this viewpoint."

"Too right." Drake agreed. "His daughter Cagalli is much the same. And while he may disagree with the Representative on occasion, Andrew Victor Payne is firmly in Athha's camp. And with him goes the military. Despite their views, the rest of the Noble Families are as impotent as slugs."

"What about the refugee Coordinators from the PLANTs?" Edward asked. "How are they affecting the situation?"

"What, you don't know?" Drake scoffed.

"Training exercises and meetings." Edward shot back. "Not much time to check up on the world."

"Well, they've formed their own nation." Drake chuckled. Edward raised an eyebrow. "The Loyalist Integrated Neo-Coalition. They're in Orb's camp, rumors have it Siegel Clyne and Uzumi Nara-Athha are already drawing up plans for an alliance. Big one too, with all the bells and whistles. No one will be able to touch either nation without the full might of the other crashing down on their poor little heads."

"Can't see how a LINC would scare off anyone."

"They brought along half of the ZAFT Home Defense Fleets, with accompanying mobile suits, munitions, and so on."

"Ah. That I can see."

"How are preparations?"

"Lena is training her recruits...hard. Thatcher and his team have been checking up on them, and she's been putting them through some rather improvised scenarios. They may break."

"Proud of her, aren't you?"

"Most certainly. On another subject...do you know why the haphazard plan?"

"Azrael's an idiot."

"Agreed. But the Joint Chiefs of Staff...Ideological Cosmonauts they may be, they have an idea of a proper strategy. And leaving even an experimental warship with a flotilla's worth of ships and a skeleton defense is not proper strategy. Not for victory."

_I suppose you have an inkling of what's coming, do you Abaddon? I guess I can hint. After all, you did have to deal with your great Operation Retribution being severely delayed due to this scenario._

"I've gone through JOSH-A's records a few times...not entirely in a legal manner, but I did...and a few of them have mentioned some kind of new weapon being deployed in the battle."

"New weapon?"

"Actually, the context of the records makes me thing it's something that's been re-purposed, but nevertheless, it's supposed be able to 'save the day'."

"Hm."

- The Torch and The Watchers -

**Grigori, Upper Port Hanger, JOSH-A Docks  
4:09 PM (Local Time)**

Both of them felt pride. Much pride. Pride that made them feel like they could take on Yamato! Which they tempered with the reasoning that Yamato would tear them in two.

And, of course, the fact that they still couldn't compete with those freaky BCPU dudes who hung around Commander Abaddon.

Still, they were skilled enough to fight Thatcher and his Strategos team to a draw, even outnumbered.

They were ready for combat.

Both Michael and Wesley smiled.

"And what are you two morons grinning about?" They quickly wiped their expressions, assuming masks that declared them as tools and nothing more. Lena was...ruthless. She did not need friends. She had use for comrades. She required tools of war to carry out her superior's orders. That said superior was her father, only reinforced it.

So, yeah, Michael still hadn't caught on to his realistic chances of wooing her.

"What assets can I deploy?" Lena asked. Currently, she was using the radio to discuss defense arrangments with her father. "Just the Strategos Team and the Biological CPUs? Fine, I suppose I can make do with that." She hang up, gently placing the phone on its receiver. Then she turned to Thatcher, standing just to the side. "Strategy session. Now"

Within minutes, the entire group of pilots; the Strategos Team, the BCPUs, Abaddon, Wesley, and Michael, were in the conference room. All-in-all, eleven pilots.

"All right, here's the situation." Lena started. "ZAFT is setting up an op to eliminate JOSH-A, High Command, and everything else here. Evacuation procedures are under way, but ZAFT's gonna hit us too soon for them to get everything out. So, the Watchers and the Base Defense Forces are gonna hold ZAFT off for as long as we can, or at least until we're given a signal to retreat" None of it was new. Everyone had been briefed the day before, and only the fact that it was Edward Abaddon himself who was giving the briefing had prevented any thoughts of it being one of the numerous April Fool's pranks.

"Now, the Grigori is loaded up with supplies and parts. Thatcher, you and your Strategos team are gonna split into two units, one of three and one of two. Two Strategos will be planted on the top decks of the Grigori with Michael Archer, Orga Sabnak and Shani Andras for close-in defense, and will be equipped with a Juggernaut Pack and a Cavalier Pack. The other three are going to join me, Clotho Buer, and Wesley Mercis in a roving air-defense role, equipped with Angelos II 'Seraph' Packs. Got it?"

There were nods all around the table.

"Good. Simulation begins in ten minutes."

**Fifteen Minutes Later**

The initial simulation pitting them against platoons of Auguries had been tough, but both Gundam pilots had managed to pull through with a few remaining pieces of armor intact on their simulated Gundams. That, that got them the title of 'official bad-asses.'

Then of course, the Commander revealed that those Auguries had actually been a few levels down from that of what they could realistically imitate of the real one, and had shoved them back into the simulators for a two-on-two battle that handed them their asses.

So yeah, badass, but not that badass.

Compared to that, this simulation was a cakewalk.

An entire platoon of ZONGS mounted on subflight lifters exploded as the Outlaw's shoulder-based missile launchers spat out a couple dozen micro-missiles, followed by the destruction of a line of GAHMUs advancing along the coastline as Michael made use of his gunlauncher. Bullets and missiles, beams and lasers filled the air as simulated OMNI defenders fought digital ZAFT attackers.

In the air, Wesley in the Repulse destroyed four IAAMS, superheated oscillating longswords cleaving two into halves while 100mm APFSDS rounds from shoulder-mounted Gatling guns tore into the others.

And then the simulation ended.

"Alright." Lena said. "Here's what's wrong: you two blithering idiots got so caught up killing that a suicidal IAAMS and a SCAU hero on a glider smashed into the Grigori's bridge! I'm thinking you need a little more motivation. So, here's what I'm gonna do: the next time the Grigori gets hit by anything bigger than ten centimeters that isn't a beam, I'm gonna take the equivalent of 50% of what it would cost to repair the damage out of your next dozen paychecks. And if it happens again...I'm gonna take something a bit more personal...like your balls."

Both of them gulped.

- The Beasts -

**Undisclosed Location  
Time/Date Redacted**

He seethed. Caged by his own body, the beast seethed at the treatment his masters gave him, and desired to wet his claws with their blood and gnaw on their bones.

After all, it wasn't his fault that idiot hadn't recognized the fact that there was a MOTHERFUCKING METER-WIDE BEAM CANNON AIMED RIGHT AT HIS FACE!

Nope. Not at all. The fact that he'd been within arm's reach of the same cannon, that was a coincidence. As well as the wires connecting his cerebrum ports to the cannon's control systems. He had, in fact, been trying to save the idiot, while carrying out his mission.

Really.

OMEGA EXASPERATED: THIS IS WHY WE CAN'T DO ANYTHING NICE. YOU HAVE TO KILL SOMEONE BEFORE THE THING IS DONE!

ALPHA ANNOYED: OH, STOP ACTING LIKE AN OLD MARRIED SHREW. IT WAS THETA'S FAULT FOR STANDING IN THE WAY! IF HE HADN'T BEEN BLOCKING MY AIM, THE BEAM WOULD HAVE BLASTED A KILOMETER-WIDE HOLE IN THE WALL! WE COULD HAVE BEEN DONE THEN AND THERE WITHOUT THE MOTHERFUCKING EFFORT OF TEARING OUR WAY THROUGH AN ENTIRE ZAFT MECHANIZED INFANTRY DIVISION, BECAUSE THERE WOULD HAVE BEEN NO AIR IN THE PLANT!

OMEGA CONDESCENDING: DID YOU TAKE INTO ACCOUNT THE NANOLOGICAL REPAIR SYSTEMS?

ALPHA HESITANTLY:...YES?

If she still had a normal neck and head, she would have shook her head in disbelief. As it was, her cybernetic body's systems interpreted the the signals delivered by her modified nervous system into a stream of data that was beamed over the remnants of the Argonaut Communications Network to let Alpha know just how annoyed she was.

"Cute. The couple made in hell bickering."

That voice they knew. That voice they instinctively hated. That voice belonged to he who was ultimately responsible for their current state.

OMEGA IRRITATED: AZRAEL  
ALPHA IRRITATED: AZRAEL

"Nice to see you haven't driven each other insane yet." Muruta said. Visiting these two always made him happier. Especially after visiting that damnable Coordinator, Drake. They had performed...adequately in their mission. Granted, those power armor troopers that had interfered had managed to delay and destroy some of them, but still, many Space Monsters had died in their rampage.

On the other hand, a lot more would have died if Alpha had refrained from vaporizing Theta with that hastily deployed heavy beam cannon that ZAFT had been setting up in a panic. Granted, Alpha's story was plausible, but ENRD's technicians had implanted lie-detection software in all of the Argonauts.

Thus, the punishment: a week of confinement, all bodily control systems restricted or cut-off entirely.

The two had managed to hijack a Laurasia-class ship and eliminate the crew before Omega hooked herself up to its systems and piloted it to a dark-side Luna base.

ALPHA SUBMISSIVE: WHAT DO YOU WANT?

"Oh, your period of punishment for killing Theta is over." Azrael informed them. "Now, here is your reward for the mission."

The two Argonauts were entombed in identical cylinders filled with fluids rich in metallic elements. Basic nanomachine systems encased in the base of the cylinders had been slowly deconstructing their Argonaut bodies, a process that would eventually leave just the Neuro-Containers that held their life support systems, enhanced memory banks, drug dispensers, and of course, their brains.

Standing before them, on the hexagon-patterned floor of the room, was Azrael. And behind him, in the armored wall that was oh-so-slowly splitting apart...

ALPHA EXCITED: OH, COOL SHIT!

"And I'm gonna want you two in on the next big operation."

OMEGA SUSPICIOUS: AND WHERE WOULD THAT BE?

"Orb. The place from which those troopers that embarrassed you are from."

If either had a mouth, they would be grinning.

ALPHA AND OMEGA: OH HELL YES!

- The Executioner -

It hadn't been easy to escape Orb, especially in a highly-advanced nineteen-meter mobile suit. But he had done it. Economic use of thrusters allowed him to get within range of Victoria Base and use the Mass Driver there to return to ZAFT.

Rau Le Creuset had brought news of the treason of Siegel and Lacus Clyne, tragically too late to save the hundreds of innocent civilians on Aprilius One who had been 'slain by the demonic machines of Orb'.

Now, newly elected Supreme Councilman Patrick Zala was on the warpath against not only the Earth Alliance, but Orb as well. ZAFT would fall upon JOSH-A and then Panama, followed by a drop into Orb.

Everything was falling into place.

- The Author -

So yeah, while trying to find descriptors for Rau and Mu, I found out two things:

1: Le Creuset is french for crucible, which is a vessel made of material that does not melt easily and is generally used for high temperature chemical reactions. i.e., cooking, although judging by the wording, I presume it can be used for other such reactions.

2: Flaga is singular for Flagae, which are either a particular kind of guardian spirit/angel or Familiar spirits that are said to appear in mirrors and reveal obscure information or esoteric truths to Witches and magicians, depending on your source.  
That, or it's Polish for flag, banner, ensign or standard

Informative, the Internet is.

("On useless facts that no one cares about")

I'm sure someone will find humor that Rau Le Creuset's surname is derived from a line of cooking pots.

("Yeah, I guess that is pretty funny")

Now I just need the Verin design and I can start writing the next chapter. On another note, for those of you that have been asking about drawings of my mobile suits, and those of others that I feature in the fanfic, I've actually been working on them.

("But they suck.")

Yeah. That, and my scanner refuses to read them. Ah well. That's life.

Mathiasosx: It was my birth week!  
Heh, that's gonna be a shocker for all of them.

Alex Yamato: With just a little pinch of ZAFT here.  
And with that, the humor.  
Heh, I'm especially cruel to newbies.  
We've actually seen Mr. Bogeyman before.  
It promises to be eye-meltingly horrific. He's working on Rau's Gundam too.  
I find myself imagining a scenario where Kira leads his newfound cultists to conquer the Earth Sphere. With Jack along for the ride, of course.

Samuraiguy2: Not really evil, so much as a bit ticked off. A bit. Yeah.

00virtuezero: We needs the comedy whilst they're still noobish enough to provide it.  
Only going to tweak the weapons a bit and maybe add some specialty systems. Move things around. Anything specific you want in the bio/history?  
Or giving Rau the launch codes for every nuclear missile in existence.  
No, the Argonauts are made up of the insane, the homeless, people you wouldn't miss.  
'Kay.  
Precisely.  
Your boys are gonna fit right in with Abaddon's crew.

Darth Brain (collective): It also means I can do what I want with them without worrying about whether it fits or not.  
Oh yes. Much. Less squeamishness for one thing.  
They have the best hackers. See: Kira Yamato.  
Yep,  
The Mephistopheles is actually still in the design phase here at K'GoN Industries.  
Thank you.

Jman12394: Working on it.  
More humor shall come.  
I've actually already got Calamity and Forbidden replacements done, and Velshard's working on the Raider.  
Coming right up. The Battle of Orb should prove to be especially memorable.

Knightmare Gundam of Ni


	48. Phase 31: Civility, Part 3

_**Disclaimer and Notes of Ownership:**_ I do not own the Gundam Franchise, or any of the characters from said franchise. If I did, I would probably use the massive fortunes resulting from that to develop real-life mobile suits and conquer the world, with a corresponding level of glee and madness.  
("He actually drew up plans for it too.")  
I do however, own all the technical designs labeled with PGAT, XHMA, MMA, XSBF, XABF, PMU, MLWS, CI, CPH and SDDGN in their alphanumeric designations, along with a portion of those labeled XGAT. I own Jack Kagizaki's mind, body and soul, as well as those of Captain Gary Shimizu and his Shoki Team. Along with that goes the Abaddons, the Grigori, and good ol' David Sariel. Drake too. If anyone should use any of these without my permission...well, I'll mope. And then I'll find you and crush you underneath a tank. Filled with high-explosives. And all the mopey, whiny Gundam protagonists that didn't grow something resembling a spine.  
Similarly, Velshard has dibs on almost the entire line of replacement units for ZAFT, excluding one. He has administrative privileges over the Noctoraptor (Enhanced), Ferox, and Verin Gundams. He also has ownage over the horrifying abomination or deification (depends on your point of view) of all that's good and pure in this universe, otherwise called the Tetsujin. The beings of Andrew Victor Payne, Karlton William Hertz, and the Van Dalygon family are belong to him.  
The Megalodon design belongs to...well Kojiro Kun gave me the idea.  
The ZONGS design belongs to animefan29.  
00virtuezero's contributions include the Gundams Repulse and Outlaw, and his OCs Wesley Mercis, and Michael Archer.

Gundam Seed: Killer's Realm

Phase 31: Civility, Part 3

- The Crucible -

**Laurasia-Class Frigate _Ziegler_, Low-Earth Orbit over Alaska  
April 13, 71 CE  
11:45 AM, PLANT Time**

The _Ziegler_ traveled upon its designated path, literally dozens of other Laurasia-class frigates in formation with it, and Nazca-class destroyers accompanying them.

Rau waited in his Charcharius SCAU-XU, entombed in a drop pod alongside a unit made, unusually, completely of SCAU mobile suits. In another timeline, another universe, he would have committed to this assault with his original team, pilots who he knew the mettle of and could trust to survive.

And, maybe, 'accidentally' die to color the Supreme Council's view of the Earth Alliance more.

The drop pod detached, essentially an enormous hollow shell plated with thermal energy-resistant material and with a built-in ECM device. The pod shook like it was being pounded on all size by mobile-suit-sized mauls, and the temperature would have been enough to cook the occupants if it weren't for the pod's construction. After reaching an altitude of two hundred kilometers, small charges blew the pod into pieces, both to free the six mobile suits within and to generate chaff to confuse anti-air defenses.

With literally hundreds of drop pods, the air was raining bits of metal and cermet and mobile suits. Pulse lasers, flak, and surface-to-air missiles blasted through the air, occasionally hitting an actual mobile suit, but more often blasting a scrap remnant of a pod into dust.

The sea churned as submarines launched SIMCAs to deal with underwater defenses and any Megalodon schools, before WAAMs launched to lend their heavy firepower to the surface fight. Surface transports beached themselves and unleashed high-speed GAHMU suits to dance around and destroy armor brigades and turrets, while CUMAR deployed from other such ships to hammer more heavily fortified defenses down to their foundations. Based off of the working machine progenitors of all mobile suits, CUMARs resemble ZAMS torsos mounted on enormous quadruped legs, with such heavy armaments they mass almost as much as small frigates. Linear artillery cannons pounded bunkers into dust as gatling guns and micro-missile launchers aided the GAHMUs in their harassment and destruction of the armor units.

The first substantial resistance came when concealed tunnels popped open to unleash teams of Constantines equipped with Energy Assault Packs, with heavy battery backpack attachments and high-output beam guns mounted on their shoulders in addition to the beam rifles they held.

Green lances of concentrated plasma reached out, melting through the CUMARs' chobham armor plating and igniting ammunition and overcharging capacitors and battery packs as the Constantines fired on the heavy artillery suits, before GAHMUs and descending ZAMS and ZONGS started carving into the Constantine ranks. The Alliance mobile suits were much less effective than they could be, their attention divided by the CUMARs in front, the GAHMUs on the sides, and the falling humanoid mobile suits.

Despite their valor, the Naturals were quickly dealt with with perhaps twenty CUMARs destroyed and an additional fifteen heavily damaged, the GAHMUs having taken advantage of the Constantines' singular focus to attack from either flank and disable or destroy them with a combined flurry of missiles, bullets and the occasional beam. With the defensive line thus crushed, ZAFTs mobile suits began to advance even further towards JOSH-A. Minefields were defeated by grenades and missiles thrown or launched into the defensive lines, bunkers were busted by CUMAR and submarine-launched cruise missiles, and infantry generally died under ZAMS and ZONGS CIWS guns and the grenade launchers of the GAHMU.

Rau's SCAU team landed on the coast, near where ZAFT amphibious and airborne units assaulted the small flotilla of warships that defended JOSH-A's dock entrance.

And accompanying them was a special warship. The Grigori.

- The Destroyer -

**Grigori, Bridge  
**

Abaddon sat in his chair, imitating the Thinker statue, or whatever it was, as best he could. Not intentionally, he was just musing over why the hell Azrael would restrict the BCPU Gundams from participating in the defense action, considering that they could actually be the keystone that allowed the defenders to beat ZAFT back.

The line about them being 'secret weapons' was okay when they were talking about dealing with the renegade Gundams, something concerning but not immediately dangerous to the overall war, especially considering that they had been heading for Orb, the most non-aggressive nation extant. But when the topic was the headquarters of the entire military...that was when you pulled the big guns out.

Of course, ZAFT's attack was actually weaker than expected...Clyne must have pulled more out of their armed forces than they thought after all.

This did not, however, mean Abaddon was thinking of it as an easy battle. Oh no. Abaddon still had that insane desire to manipulate the ZAFT forces into a situation that ensured nothing less than their destruction, up to and including a Mutually-Assured Destruction scenario.

It was just that kind of enthusiasm for elimination that had gotten him noticed.

And, here he was, sitting on a chair, watching younger people go off to fight and being unable to join them in the slaughter of their counterparts.

Promotions really sucked.

"Strategos 3 is landing for resupply." Reported Gabriel, their mobile suit team coordinator.

"Allocate greater power from reserves to port laser batteries." Abaddon ordered, the crew in CIC hurriedly obeying.

"Sir," Ivan called, "ZAFT reinforcements from the drop pods that landed on the coast. Counting thirty-nine ZAMS, seventeen ZONGS, six SCAU and a modified model identified as Le Creuset's customized model." The crew noted Abaddon's change in posture, leaning forward from a chin-on-fist posture as his hands went back to grip the chair's armrests and his eyes narrowed, almost as though he could pick out the SCAU-XU from over ten kilometers by eye-sight alone.

Without an order, Ivan pulled up a computer-enhanced zoom image and showed the formation, ZONGS and SCAU on sub-flight lifters while the grey and white mobile suit of Rau's led from the front, its enhanced thrusters allowing it to fly unaided.

"Commander Abaddon," The Vice-Admiral spoke, having picked up the comms phone, "Keep an eye on Le Creuset. His suit closes in two kilometers, you run him down and eviscerate him."

"With pleasure Vice-Admiral." Lena's voice hissed, and on-screen, the Samyaza's angelic head turned to glare at the approaching ZAFT Commander, even as she split a IAAMS in half with an off-handed swipe of her Achilles Anti-Ship Sword.

- The Troopers -

Amidst the mid-air explosions, the beams and bullets and lasers, the flak, the chaff and the debris, it would have been easy for the combatants to miss the five relatively puny dart-shaped objects dropping from High-Earth Orbit into the ocean. Even if there hadn't been a big battle going on, the Mirage Colloid cloaks these objects possessed made them completely invisible to standard radar and ladar sensors, and rendered them practically invisible to normal sight, disregarding a slight shimmer in the air.

After they submerged in the sea, their density and weight causing them to sink fairly quickly, the majority sunk their tips into the seabed, although one scraped against the side of a submarine, causing the crew to have a slight heart attack as they waited for a torpedo explosion.

That pod tipped sideways and dropped onto the seabed on its side.

"Well, fuck!" Gary muttered, before throwing himself side-to-side.

"Need some help Shepherd?" John noted humorously, having already busted out of his Ryuuzaken and crouched next to his Captain's as the pod shook side to side. The water in no way hindered their movements, the advanced computer entombed in their OMU's helmets compensating for the increased drag on their limbs by increasing power to the motive systems, and the nanomachine colonies in the facial area of their helmets sucking in seawater and extracting oxygen from it before mixing it with select elements from the soldiers' exhalations to create an approximation of the Earth's atmosphere that they inhaled with every breath.

"Fuck you Mjolnir! I just need to roll this damn pod around enough to get the hatch to blow open!" Gary growled, slamming a shoulder into the wall.

"Hold up, you're stuck in a crevice." Lilou reported, after looking around Gary's pod a bit. "You-"

"Fuck this!" With a hiss, a bright beam of blue plasma sliced through the hull of the Ryuuzaken, instantly ionizing and evaporating the water around it and continuing to do so as Gary cut the pod in half. "Hah! Forget lockpicks and hacking, with one of these babies, all you need is a slice!" Gary crowed, deactivating the experimental plasma sword. Unlike the rather more advanced and efficient design of mobile suit beam sabers, the plasma sword was essentially a miniaturized plasma torch that generated hotter plasma. Whereas beam sabers utilized powerful magnetic fields to contain a generally constant supply of plasma, the plasma sword just threw out plasma that cooled soon after contacting the air into gas, constantly drawing in more matter to heat and ionize. As a result, it was horrendously inefficient.

However, as Gary noted, it could cut through almost _anything_. The same measures used to protect objects from beam sabers, such as laminated armor, magnetic anti-beam coating, and of course, other energy weapons, simply did not exist on anything other than mobile suits, warships, and heavy base defenses. Considering that, as special forces infantry equipped with powered armor, the most heavily armored foe that their missions would pit them against would be a tank, the plasma sword could be counted on to be reasonably effective.

"How the hell is that thing not shorting out?" Boris rumbled.

"Orb technology." Muttered their newest recruit, Ryan, callsign 'Apollo'. He was replacing Kuro as their medical specialist, although he came well-recommended from the Orb Marines for anything from stealth assassination to mobile-suit theft. "Proof against all environments, from the depths of the ocean to the void of space."

"Shut it, FNG. Alright boss, what now?" John asked.

"...You weren't listening to the briefing, were you?"

"Shepherd, in the past four years that we've known each other, when have I ever listened to a briefing when I know you're going to be taking Cliff Notes to read to us later?"

"...Damn it. Alright, Andrew wants us to infiltrate JOSH-A and get anything out of their computers and what-not that we can fit on our OMU's computers. And he also wants us to proceed to some super-secret facility they have north of here to retrieve a large amount of sensitive and strategically important information from top-secret infiltrator in said super-secret facility."

"Ah, a raid."

"Correct, now get your cloaks on and let's get moving." Without further ado, each member of Shoki team draped the large pieces of strangely shimmering cloth around them, ensuring to completely cover up themselves, and set off. A few moments after, the shimmers intensified before the cloaks disappeared, along the soldiers underneath.

- The Crucible -

Rau dodged a flurry of missiles and upped the ECM to scramble their targeting systems, as well as those of the laser CIWS guns the Grigori sported. Despite the mutual antipathy between him and the Abaddon family, the ace couldn't help some frustrated respect for them. Their defenses were rather well-planned, and the younger Abaddon's piloting skills weren't something to be dismissed.

However, Rau didn't particularly need to deal with them at the moment. He just needed to put forth a token effort, enough to cement his position.

Temporarily cutting the power to his thrusters, Rau dropped the Charcharius down to just above sea level, the Grigori's forward-most pulse lasers streaking through the air behind him even as he kicked the white and gray mobile suit up to full speed, charging a particularly obstinate Eurasian frigate.

Thankfully, the targeting databases that the ZAFT suits accessed through the Network had been updated with new schematics of OMNI Enforcer's more recent additions to their forces, allowing Rau to quite easily deal with the frigate with a single beam rifle shot to each of its engines, and another to its ammunition stocks, delivering a coup de grace to the bridge via a burst of linear rifle rounds and a missile or two from his back-mounted launchers.

The explosion was quite satisfying, and opened a hole in the anti-air defenses, allowing a team of IAAMS and three ZONGS on Guuls to slip through, the IAAMS hanging around to divide the remaining defenders' attentions while the ZONGS made a bee-line for the docks.

Then Rau dodged a shell, the hyper-accelerated projectile streaking by the Charcharius' torso and shot into the sea. A mere second later, the sea erupted in something like a massive bubble, and the temperature raised high enough for the Charcharius' sensors to note it from over a mile away. Craning the Charcharius' head, Rau saw the Samyaza speeding for him, in jet fighter form. Not quite the best thing to happen in this battle. Nonetheless, easily dealt with. It merely required some flexibility of tactical planning.

- The Destroyer -

"Damn it Lena, get back in formation!" Edward growled into the phone, a truly menacing sound that would have caused his bridge crew to crap themselves if they hadn't acclimated to their commanding officer's demeanor over the years (albeit with a truly remarkable number of soiled trousers).

"I can get him!" Lena hissed back, and on the screen, the Samyaza shifted in midair to mobile suit configuration and the thrusters flared so much brighter to get the Gundam up to speed to slam into the Charcharius' waist and check it.

However, Le Creuset didn't spend the war sitting behind a desk, and proved it with a minimal bit of thrust that angled the SCAU-XU so that it faced down and fell like a rocket-attached brick. Behind the spot where he was, there was a group of six SCAUs armed with beam rifles and two IAAMS loaded up with missiles. The missiles fired, over three dozen total arcing towards the Samyaza, most of them intercepted by the Igellstellung guns, while a few were confounded by the waves of ECM from everywhere, leaving all but two for Lena to dodge around.

Of course, in the time period the missiles were firing, the SCAUs had opened fire as well, the generally white suits firing green beams as fast as their rifles' heat sinks and vents could cycle. Luckily for Lena, one of Thatcher's Seraph Pack-equipped Strategos swooped in and intercepted a few of the beams with its shield, and continued evasive maneuvers from the Samyaza and a more focused wave of ECM from the Grigori allowed Lena to get away with only a few disfiguring scorches on the Gundam's armor.

"Thanks Kyle." Lena radioed, rather absent-mindedly as she scanned for Le Creuset as the SCAUs retreated with the Grigori pushing forward.

"Lena..." Edward growled again, and this time half the bridge almost lost it. "Get back here."

- The Troopers -

They stared. Understanadable. It was a big door. But not, however, proof to Orb ingenuity.

A few seconds fiddling had the door falling inwards, with a resounding _'bam'_ as the triple-layered iron door fell.

"And that, dear rookie, is how you can get into a top-secret Blue Cosmos and/or OMNI Enforcer complex using nothing more than a gram of composition 15, Surin's titanium hair-pin, a bottle of super-glue, and five small-size lithium-ion batteries." John remarked, stepping through the entrance he'd created.

"Wow, impressive Mjolnir." Ryan commented.

"Damn right, and don't you forget that." John laughed, leading the way through. Since their last mission, he'd replaced the gauss launcher slung under his rifle barrel with a gauss shotgun instead. He kinda missed Karl. That guy was awesome.

"Shut it. Anyone else notice something strange?" Gary queried. They all paused for a second.

"No lights." Boris stated

"No people." Ryan hissed.

"No deadly acid pits, anti-personnel mines, rolling boulders or giant demonic robots." They all turned to glare at Lilou. "Hmm? Oh, sorry. I had an Armory and Androids session going on at a friends house last night."

"Ooooohhh, pajama party?" John asked slyly.

"Not your business perv."

"Getting back on track, this seems to be awfully deserted for a high-security command installation." Gary steamrolled over their conversation. The team proceeded down the hall, Colloid Lattice cloaks still over them. They had to keep their rifles parallel to their bodies for the most part, to ensure that the cloaks covered them, but it worked out fairly well. Weights at the bottom ensured the cloaks didn't randomly fly off or out due to wind or something like that, and the OMU's cameras were already modified to allow them to see out of the cloaks.

Then they reached the area that was supposed to be the command center, stuffed with techs and radio operators coordinating between the defense forces and somesuch.

It was empty.

The room was laid out in levels, like a university classroom, but instead of a podium where the professor would stand, there was a big screen showing the force disposition outside.

"There's no one here?" Gary muttered.

"No, there isn't anyone here, Shepherd." The screen flickered, and showed a big old-style gas mask. The big buggy eyepieces seemed to gleam, and Shoki team jumped backward in surprise. "Now, if you could hurry here before you're all boiled alive..."

- The Author -

yeah...took me some time. I got pulled out of my house to go to some resort in Florida...

("You know, I don't understand you.")

Yes?

("Most people would be ecstatic to go to a high-class hotel resort...")

Key word, 'most'. Anyway, Shoki team shows its face again...kinda. Rau's keeping up appearances, and the Alliance is a bunch of bastards. Feh. Oh yes, intrigue. Yes...much more intrigue...I guess.

Anyway, I've been keeping up with the new Evangelion movies. Gotta, say, I personally like them a lot more than the original show (for one thing, the Zeruel fight is so much more epic). Hopefully, the ending will be a bit less vague...cause even End of Evangelion was somewhat vague as to humanity's ultimate fate.

Alex Yamato: Yep.  
Well, after this chapter it should be rather clear...I think.  
It's too much fun! Granted, they'll probably be bad-asses in the sequel when I replace them with Shinn as the overall newb. And I'm speaking in general, so Lunamaria and Rey will probably be along for the newb-abuse ride.  
Nah, not actual mobile suits. We already have some canon and new big-names in mobile suits.  
He is a sneaky devil.  
Just read.  
And when theres one on each side...yeah, stay outta their way.  
It's be fun...there's be candy...and assorted body parts.

Infinite Freedom: I think even they would have second thoughts about that...

Mathiasosx: I could do a sequel omake if you want...  
...What's Flame of Recca? Tetsujin is Velshard's design, he kinda wants to stick with the -jin suffix with mobile suits, and Raijin/Fujin are the Shinto (?) gods of lighting and wind, respectively (I think) Which I thought would fit Jack and his AI clone, considering their Gundams' amphibious nature and how storms are devastating to islands.

G. Wagers: Yes, but there is actually a line of cooking pots named 'Le Creuset'. I'm serious.  
Hooray!  
I really haven't written anything that well when it comes to the canon secondary characters, have I?

Knightmare Gundam of Ni


	49. Phase 32: Civility, Part 4

_**Disclaimer and Notes of Ownership:**_ I do not own the Gundam Franchise, or any of the characters from said franchise. If I did, I would probably use the massive fortunes resulting from that to develop real-life mobile suits and conquer the world, with a corresponding level of glee and madness.  
("He actually drew up plans for it too.")  
I do however, own all the technical designs labeled with PGAT, XHMA, MMA, XSBF, XABF, PMU, MLWS, CI, CPH and SDDGN in their alphanumeric designations, along with a portion of those labeled XGAT. I own Jack Kagizaki's mind, body and soul, as well as those of Captain Gary Shimizu and his Shoki Team. Along with that goes the Abaddons, the Grigori, and good ol' David Sariel. Drake too. If anyone should use any of these without my permission...well, I'll mope. And then I'll find you and crush you underneath a tank. Filled with high-explosives. And all the mopey, whiny Gundam protagonists that didn't grow something resembling a spine.  
Similarly, Velshard has dibs on almost the entire line of replacement units for ZAFT, excluding one. He has administrative privileges over the Noctoraptor (Enhanced), Ferox, and Verin Gundams. He also has ownage over the horrifying abomination or deification (depends on your point of view) of all that's good and pure in this universe, otherwise called the Tetsujin. The beings of Andrew Victor Payne, Karlton William Hertz, and the Van Dalygon family are belong to him.  
The Megalodon design belongs to...well Kojiro Kun gave me the idea.  
The ZONGS design belongs to animefan29.  
00virtuezero's contributions include the Gundams Repulse and Outlaw, and his OCs Wesley Mercis, and Michael Archer.

Gundam Seed: Killer's Realm

Phase 32: Civility, Part 4

- The Troopers -

**JOSH-A, Alaska  
April 13, 71 CE  
12:11 PM Local Time**

The wall exploded outwards, the force of the explosion sending pieces of concrete knifing through the opposite wall of the hallway, and even before much of it hit anything, the no-longer-cloaked members of Shoki team barreled out the hole and down the hall, heading for one of the emergency exits their newly-updated map of JOSH-A noted.

"Will you hurry up you big Russian brute! I like having my blood all wet and liquidy in my veins!" John shouted, quite literally pushing against Boris' back as he urged the largest Shoki Team member to greater speeds.

"Believe me my little friend, I would enjoy being cooked and boiled by my own superheated blood as much as you." Boris rumbled, still sounding rather stolid. "To say nothing of the agonizing nerve damage. Of course, you could go laughing."

"How the hell would we laugh at that?" Lilou demanded, third in line and jogging.

"Well, if you did a hand-stand, the microwaves would hit your brain before the rest of your body, irreparably damaging it and of course, the centers for pleasure and pain, causing you to feel inexplicably joyous as your body cooked." Ryan explained, bringing up the rear. "By the way, where did Shepherd go?"

"Oh, he's way up there." John snorted. "Bastard's fast. Comes from having to reposition all the time to keep a target in sights."

"And it also helps when fleeing reprisals." Gary chimed in. "By the way, this is a one-way express elevator to the surface and departs in forty-five seconds. Might wanna hustle."

"Oh no you don't you bastard, if that elevator leaves without me on it and OMNI's Cyclops kills me, my ghost will haunt you and whack you upside the face with your own sniper rifle!" John roared.

"Da, I agree." Boris added. "Only, I will be using your car."

"_Hey_. Do what you want to me, but leave the 71 CE Leetcar alone. It didn't do anything to you."

"Moot point, we're here, _move_." Ryan growled, shoving at Lilou to get them all in the elevator. Which, being made for maybe a dozen people dressed at most in light combat armor, was rather cramped for the power-suited troopers.

"How long did the guy say we had?" John asked nervously.

"About thirty minutes, say twenty-seven when we get out of this elevator. We can make that. Can't we?" Lilou asked, a bit nervous.

"Let's see...the Cyclops detonated on Grimaldi had an effective radius of about fifty kilometers, and that was in near-vacuum conditions...so the one here...aw, hell, I dunno, just run!" Gary snapped.

- The Inventor -

**Drake Complex, Level 27- Terminal, Alaska  
April 13, 71 CE**

"Well, they're rather interesting." Drake mused, watching the antics of Shoki team on his western wall-screen. "Hopefully they can make it. It'd be difficult to get out of here otherwise."

From the cage, a brief hiss/grunt/snort issued, sounding insulted.

"Forgive me Rex, allow me to elaborate: It'd be difficult to get out of here without Azrael catching on. And then...well, the whole gambit we and Bogeyman had here would potentially go wasted, now wouldn't it?"

The beast in the cage answered with a desultory growl.

"Yes, I would have liked to see you eat him too. One way or another however, Muruta Azrael will not live to see 72 CE. Speaking of which, what do you think of Edward Abaddon?"

That query was answered with a respectful, throaty, rumble, along with the sound of sharp implements scraping on metal.

"He is formidable indeed. Thankfully, OIA's profiles on him and the rest of his crew are promising. Especially since the Joint Chiefs, or rather, Azrael, let him stick around to see JOSH-A's final moments. Not particularly smart. He'll be more susceptible to Bogeyman and Simba now."

- The Destroyer -

**Grigori, Bride, JOSH-A Dock Entrance**

Abaddon growled again, forcing Sariel to, for the fifth time, excuse himself to go to the bathroom. It was extremely frustrating that Le Creuset refused to come at the Grigori, instead using hit-and-run tactics on the Eurasian ships around them. Edward would have been perfectly happy to deal with him personally, but his Gundam, the Azazel, was still undergoing preventative maintenance, necessary considering that its previous service as the Praetor.

"Vice-Admiral sir, coded transmission coming in from Lunar HQ." The comms officer said.

"Bring it up on my screen." Edward ordered, picking up the comms phone.

The image of Azrael, blond, stupid and arrogant, flashed up on the screen Abaddon had built into his armrest.

"Abaddon, you are to leave the battle now, at maximum possible speed and head for the Philippines."

"Yes sir." Edward replied coolly. That lasted until he replaced the phone in its cradle. Then the aura of restrained fury returned, giving the returning Sariel another bout of bowel movement.. "Prepare the Longinus, deuterium-core shell. Set for airburst five seconds after firing, target the epicenter of the largest ZAFT aerial formation."

_Oh shit._ Was the communal thought.

Deep in the bowls of the Grigori, automated systems activated, humming to brief life. Capacitors built into the forward half of the ship began drawing energy from the Grigori's extensive hydrogen fuel cell network, even as a mechanical claw reached into a compartment the size of a semi-truck, briefly scanning before selecting a large shell. As the claw transported the projectile to the loading chamber, the weapon's officer's station on the bridge connected to the shell's electronics and programmed the settings in. That done, the claw delicately set the shell into a box. The moment the claw withdrew, the box receded into the 'wall'. Inside, a panel extended and pushed the shell into the enormous Linear Cannon's barrel.

Fully charged capacitors instantly discharged their entire store of electrical energy, dumping thousands of watts of artificial lightning into the magnetic coils that twisted around the barrel. The magnetic field generated, forming in front of the shell, pulling the highly-magnetized outer layer of metal around it, which took the main body along for the ride. Then the rails, set inside of the coils and spiraling around the barrel, activated. The shell instantly broke the speed of sound, darting past the halfway point of the Longinus' barrel in the blink of an eye, and shot out of the muzzle at a good 5 km/s.

The round shot past the defensive network the Grigori and surrounding ships had set up, past ZAFT's front-line, and into the zone where most of the submarine-launched units emerged and dropped units reformed. Twenty-five kilometers away, the rounds internal mechanisms counted down to zero before activating.

Shaped charges perfectly surrounding the core of super-compressed deuterium detonated, compressing the already dense sphere into an even denser form, combined with the heat from the explosions.

The shell instantly turned into a puny star, by solar reckonings. For a brief second, it lived, before dying out as the pressure that kept its core intact died away and allowed it to expand into a mere collection of heated gas.

By the time the light from the short-lived sun died, the mass of ZAFT's forces that was blocking the Grigori's way had gone. It was a sizable number, but still nothing to the rest of the force that continued to land.

"Forward, all power." Abaddon ordered. The Grigori's thrusters flared brightly, propelling the enormous ship into the gap. Almost immediately, chatter from the surviving Eurasian warships intensified as they began to question the movement. "Cut them off." The lines silenced.

- The Crucible -

Rau wasn't all that surprised to see the Grigori leaving. Muruta Azrael was a fool, but he wasn't about to sacrifice one of his biggest trump cards on a mere trap. Checking his display, Rau saw that several of the ground-based Mobile Suit units had managed to blast open the land gates and force their way in. Even now, IFVs and APCs rolled in from their ships, carrying soldiers to secure area behind the spear-head of the Suits.

Right in front of him, from his perch on top of a half-sunken Alliance Cruiser. All around him, the IAAMS and glider-riding ZONGS, ZAMS, and SCAUs pulverized the closest ships, even dealing with the occasional jet that the Eurasians flew.

_It should happen any minute now_. Without a word, he jumped the Charcharius off of the wreck and into the air, flaring the thrusters as he left the battlefield.

- The Troopers -

All of Shoki Team was, at the moment, even more appreciative of the work SpecOpsIntel R&D did for them.

Not only was the OMU completely insulated from outside conditions, it also allowed them to move at a brisk seventy-five kilometers per hour. **Away** from any potentially fatal microwaves.

There was, however, one problem.

In order to make full use of this awesome speed, they were forced to choose the straightest and clearest route availabe, which happened to be the enormous canal that connected JOSH-A's dock in the Yukon River to Norton Sound. This was also the same canal in which the fiercest part of the battle between the Alliance and ZAFT was taking place.

"Hmmm...Anyone else notice how straight this canal is?" Ryan asked.

"Shut up and keep running FNG." John grunted. "Before my boot connects with your ass. Padding or not, that'll hurt, trust me."

"Huh...he's right." Gary noted, arcing his neck to study the stream of water next to which they traveled. "And look at the edges. Looks almost like..."

"Like what?" Lilou butted in.

"Like the remnants of a beam. You know, like when a beam hits the ground, and there's a divot left, all glowy and hot and shit, and after a while, it's cooled down and looks all glossy and crystalline?"

"Whatever, let's just run faster!" John urged them on from the rear, followed shortly by Boris.

- The Beast -

Hundreds of kilometers away, fathoms below the surface of the ocean, a single large submarine skimmed the seabed, silent and unseen.

In the core of it, there was a room wherein several of the Joint Chiefs of the Alliance sat. A long table was centered in the room, with maybe five people sitting at it, not one single person there under the rank of Captain.

Captain Sutherland sat in a seat at the table, waiting along with the rest of the officers from JOSH-A. It was almost time. They had just received word that ZAFT had breached the interior of the base and would soon overrun it. Sutherland had personally told the doomed fools that reinforcements would be there in less then twenty minutes. All they had to do was hold out until then. The door to the briefing room opened, Admiral Stephen Halberton entered the room. All of the officers except one pale white haired Colonel who was leaning against the wall near the door Hymen enter, in the room saluted the Admiral. "It's time." Sutherland informed him.

Stephen nodded. He silently took his seat next to Sutherland. Before both of them was a pair of metal boxes attached to cables with a keyhole in the center. Both men pulled out their keys and inserted them into the keyholes.

"It is my sincerest wish that this terrible sacrifice will bring a swift end to the war," a solemn and weary Stephen said.

"For the preservation of our blue and pure world," Sutherland added.

As Sutherland began to count down one officer that was leaning against the wall with his arms crossed looked at the seen with silent contemptuous and disgust. While this was an intelligent move and it would wipe a large scale of ZAFT's forces, it would however cause the deaths their fellow soldiers, mainly the Eurasians. That was the general plan lead ZAFT into JOSH-A, activate the Cyclops system wipe out the enemy's forces, along with Eurasian Federation soldiers so the Atlantic Federation would be in complete control in the Alliance. Still, the Colonel couldn't help but think of his dark reservations about this action and how Blue Cosmos, along with Zala's Elitists would use as propaganda to the people of Earth and the Plants. Still, while it was logical and sound, it was a disgusting move.

"For the preservation of their blue and pure world. What a pathetic excuse." Colonel Eunathas muttered under his breath.

His cold gray eyes held no empathy as Sutherland and Stephen turned their keys.

"Idiots" he muttered.

Under JOSH-A, in the deepest rooms and natural caverns, the Cyclops array activated. A distinct humming echoed throughout the empty rooms, as the dozens of hundreds of emitters began to glow. Within a short time, the air ionized and arcs of electricity crackled in the air. Unseen microwaves traveled, heating up the bedrock and air, and all else in their path.

In the interior of JOSH-A above, surviving Eurasian soldiers contorted and screamed as their flesh was cooked inside and out, and their blood boiled until it expanded and heated into gas and vaporized, exploding out of veins and arteries and everything else, their bodies popping like blisters. Moments latter, all that remained of them was a faint bloody mist and the cooked, steaming giblets that was their bodies.

Not even half a minute later, ZAFT's soldiers felt the Cyclops's effects as well. Gunpowder ignited, cooking off ammunition, electronics displays sparked and burst into flame, gas tanks heated and exploded, and among that chaos, Coordinators died.

Not even the Mobile Suits, avatars of a new age of warfare and among the most deadly weapons a single man could be entrusted with, were unaffected. The microwaves overcharged their batteries and capacitors, set off missiles and bullets still in the tube, and excited stored plasma to new heights, melting through their containers as the conductive materials melted and exploded. Like their pilots, the suits exploded.

All around the base, stockpiles of munitions and fuel exploded, devastating the area. As structural supports were destroyed, the base collapsed inwards, the ground above caving in as well in a sinkhole.

The microwaves reached the sea, boiling water and cooking the WAAMs and SIMCA until the suits exploded. On the surface of the sea, the Eurasian warships died as their own reserves cooked off. Within minutes, all of JOSH-A for twenty-five kilometers around was a burning, irradiated crater.

- The Destroyer -

The bridge was almost empty. The Grigori was left on auto-pilot, and all that remained was the figure of Edward Abaddon, claw-like hands gripping his chair's arms as the main screen replayed the scene from minutes ago. Slowly, as it ended again, Abaddon wrenched his hands from the plastic, now molded to the shape of his fingers.

- The Troopers -

They were silent. Shoki Team stood on the lip of the canal, gazing back towards JOSH-A. Around them, lay the bodies of those who had managed to, like them, escape the fatal range of the weapon where they exploded, but not far enough to escape being cooked to the inside. Ryan stooped to examine one who was still writhing in pain, only for Gary to grab him by the shoulder. Stiffening, and then standing back up and looking away, Ryan kept his gorge down as his team-mates drew their sidearms.

- The Inventor -

Drake sat, and gazed at the images of JOSH-A that surrounded the room, casting it into light and shadows that shifted as images swapped in and out, videos played and paused, following no visible stimulus, as the devious individual scanned them. Under his mask, Drake grinned as his pet, curled around his chair, growled and hissed.

"Oh, they'll get what's coming for them. Especially when _he_ sees this..."

- The Author -

I'm wicked.

("I'll say. Especially with that description..."

Well hey, if they'd seen the original Seed imagery of JOSH-A, and also if they've seen District 9 and the effects of the 'Prawn' electrolaser, I don't think my withholding the description would have helped. Anway, here we are, at the end of the battle. Yes, it's short, but I don't consider it to be one of _the_ big battles in this story. It is, however a Moral Event Horizon. People are gonna be jumping the Alliance ship like rats. Well, not really.

But, as Drake says, they are gonna get their comeuppance.

("Via the foot of a fifty-foot mecha.")

Indeed. Also in this chapter, we see 00virtuezero's new OC, and Stephen Halberton, Lewis Halberton's brother. Yes, let the rumors flow.

Review Replies:

Alex Yamato: Now ends.  
He's quite a bit more than a spy...  
Heh.  
Not entirely sure, although I think I'm gonna be taking some influences from Metal Gear Solid stuff too...  
You're welcome.

Kojiro Kun: Heh. Nice to see you here.  
Might wanna wait a bit for that.

G. Wagers: Go ahead and google Le Creuset. I laughed when I first found it.  
Quite frankly: EVERYONE DIES! (insert cackle) Excepting some of the more plot-important ones.  
There was no way you'd be wrong. The Freedom isn't even an idea in this story.  
Gladly.

Infinite Freedom: Knee her in the stomach and then run! Run fast as you can!. Oh, and you might wanna keep away from Jack's body. He has a tendency to gnaw on things when unconscious.

Mathiasosx: Next Omake then!  
Ah...  
That it is.  
Soon, my apprentice, soo-

("Oh, shut up with the Star Wars!")

Ack! Not the brain, not the brain!

Evci: Thank you.

00virtuezero: Yep, It really smarts when you're mortal enemy (yes, even more so than Kira) is literally within your reach, and yet your code prevents you from dealing with him at the moment.  
Just wait until Destiny. Then you'll get to laugh at Shinn instead of your own characters.  
Special Systems, like the Freedom's multi-targeting system from Canon, stuff like that. Like...who developed it, built it, How it got assigned to its pilots, stuff like that.  
And short-lived.  
Oh, he's still nuts. But...well...surprises will abound.  
I made a few modifications, hope you didn't mind. Also, wasn't Jamitov the guy in the Titans in UC?

Knightmare Gundam of Ni


	50. Phase 33: Start Game

_**Disclaimer and Notes of Ownership:**_ I do not own the Gundam Franchise, or any of the characters from said franchise. If I did, I would probably use the massive fortunes resulting from that to develop real-life mobile suits and conquer the world, with a corresponding level of glee and madness.  
("He actually drew up plans for it too.")  
I do however, own all the technical designs labeled with PGAT, XHMA, MMA, XSBF, XABF, PMU, MLWS, CI, CPH and SDDGN in their alphanumeric designations, along with a portion of those labeled XGAT. I own Jack Kagizaki's mind, body and soul, as well as those of Captain Gary Shimizu and his Shoki Team. Along with that goes the Abaddons, the Grigori, and good ol' David Sariel. Drake too. If anyone should use any of these without my permission...well, I'll mope. And then I'll find you and crush you underneath a tank. Filled with high-explosives. And all the mopey, whiny Gundam protagonists that didn't grow something resembling a spine.  
Similarly, Velshard has dibs on almost the entire line of replacement units for ZAFT, excluding one. He has administrative privileges over the Noctoraptor (Enhanced), Ferox, and Verin Gundams. He also has ownage over the horrifying abomination or deification (depends on your point of view) of all that's good and pure in this universe, otherwise called the Tetsujin. The beings of Andrew Victor Payne, Karlton William Hertz, and the Van Dalygon family are belong to him.  
The Megalodon design belongs to...well Kojiro Kun gave me the idea.  
The ZONGS design belongs to animefan29.  
00virtuezero's contributions include the Gundams Repulse and Outlaw, and his OCs Wesley Mercis, and Michael Archer.

Gundam Seed: Killer's Realm

Phase 33: Start Game

- The Demon Thunder -

**Orb, "Enma's Locker" Primary SpecOpsIntel Officer Barracks**  
**April 16, 71 CE  
2:19 A.M.**

Karl blearily opened his eyes as his phone shrieked from his bedside table. He groped for the small, palm-sized device, grabbed it and held it to his ear. It automatically answered the call.

"What the hell? It's...it's two in the morning, boss...what? Please tell me you're kidding...yeah, well, the problem with shit is that it tends to happen." Removing the phone from his ear, he stabbed the center of the touch screen with his thumb and sighed, rising from his bed.

**Universal Street, Century Apartments  
2:21 A.M.**

Major Hertz exited the elevator, dressed with an overcoat and large hat over his uniform as he moved. Walking swiftly, he hopped in an Omnicar waiting for him, with Major-General Payne already waiting for him in the opposite seat. The civilianized APC's engine roared to a start as it accelerated to max speed, the traffic lights turning green just for that car, and the computerized speed limit signs switching to match the Omnicar's speed.

"So, Jack and Kira got out? What happened to the others?" Payne handed over a small folder without a word, Hertz taking the photos out and wincing at the images. "I won't ask who had this idea, although I still wonder...where did Jack find S&M gear?"

"Doesn't matter. I'd like those photos back though. Good blackmail if the LINC pilots ever get somewhere powerful and start to dislike us." Andrew replied,

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure neither Yzak nor Athrun would want these released to the public. But, we're getting off-topic. Where are they?"

"Jack snatched an Izanagi set, carbine barrel, short stock, CC-guncam, and six clips of Lance rounds. Kira, on the other hand...he's got his Kanehada suit and the prototype OMU-LW set as well as the prototype Oscillation Katana." Payne recited to his subordinate. With his cybernetic enhancements, Andrew was quite capable of communication without a radio on-hand, and could access SpecOpsIntel's database as well.

"Any idea where they're heading?"

"Probably that OMNI Enforcer spy hideout in that warehouse at the docks we've been monitoring. A pity. I wanted to use them to feed some more false information about the Tetsujins to the Joint Chiefs and Azrael."

- The Doomed -

**Zenopolis Eastern Docks, Warehouse 8 Interior**

The entire miniature base that the Blue Cosmos members of the OMNI spy detachment (basically the entire group) was frozen in terror at the sight of Jack, cradling the Izanagi he had in his arms. Arrayed against him were fifty-odd OMNI soldiers armed with standard assault rifles and basic body armor. Rather unusual for an intelligence-gathering outfit, but then again, it is Orb, land of the Prince of Stabby and Slicey Implements.

"Don't show fear, don't step back, and for the love of God almighty..._DON'T FUCKING BLEED_." One of the soldiers hissed at the others. Jack, or well, Chimamare's reputation had spread wide and far ever since he killed his first OMNI trooper. Luckily for the troops, good or bad, facing them now was neither Jack or Chimamare, but Hajikidasu. On the one hand, unlike his more 'artistic' 'brother', Haji tended to settle things quickly with a relatively painless end involving ranged projectiles and the brain case. On the other hand, his presence meant that Kira was getting a bit more hands-on in his involvement.

Proved when said Prince of Orb dropped from warehouse rafters, landing on his feet. He was suited up in a lighter variant of the OMU, slimmer and more body-conforming, and lighter as well. The majority of it was ballistic mesh-covered artificial musculature covered by strategically-placed armor plating, with the helmet conforming to the skull's shape, with a shallow wedge of a visor on the front. A single large camera was centered on the visor, with shallow eye-slits covered by transparent armor polymer under it and to either side. On the left side was strapped a katana in its sheath.

"Motherfu- Fire, FIRE, **FIRE!**""" The 'leader' shouted. Even before the OMNI/Blue Cosmos soldiers brought their rifles around to aim at Kira, he'd already drawn the katana.

- The Killer -

From Kira's perspective, in what Erica Simmons termed 'SEED Mode', the bullets were slightly slower than usual. Combined with the assistance from the OMU-LW's HUD, Kira found it only slightly difficult to use the katana to deflect the rounds, sweeping the blade in circles to drive them up, down, and to either side. A few seconds of this ended with the soldiers looking on dumbfounded.

Kira inclined his head to one side, and the leader's head exploded. Even before the corpse collapsed, Haji targeted and wasted another soldier, with similar effects. Now the soldiers started diving for cover, hoping to keep out of the marksman's line of sight.

Which made them perfect targets for Kira.

The Prince of Orb darted forward, the combination of his own well-exercised physique and the musculature of the OMU-LW suit making him move faster than the troopers could reliably react, and four soldiers became sixteen pieces of soldiers, cut in half at the waist, decapitated, and then hacked apart up the center of their torso. Hardly before the viscera spread, Haji already fired again, switching over to short five-round bursts and aiming to maim rather than kill.

Kira continued through the group, ducking under rifle butts and around bullet paths and slicing every OMNI body part that came within range. Blood and gore spattered the ground and the containers that held the spy ring's disguised equipment. Limbs fell to the ground, and heads rolled. Those that were out of Kira's reach fell into Haji's, precise bursts of Lance rounds hitting the spots he targeted, with immaculate mathematical precision.

A single soldier bad it up to Kira unmolested, unloading a full clip of ammo into the OMU-LW's faceplate. He was rewarded with a progressing series of slices, cutting apart his rifle, then his hand, his arm, and ending with his head being sliced into eighths.

Another soldier tried to rush him from behind, rifle up and coming butt-first towards his head. He was cut down by Haji, before the calculating personality turned his attention back to the soldiers ducked behind cover. Kira turned and sliced through a container, .50-caliber rounds spilling out. Along with blood from the severed arm of the OMNI soldier hiding behind that container, who now rolled on the ground, screaming with the rest of the maimed and living.

Kira ignored the mook, moving towards the apparent leader, barely pausing to deflect a round from a sniper in the rafters. The sniper's head was ventilated by Haji's next burst, the corpse falling out of the beams in the warehouse roof to fall into his comrades' midst. At that moment, the leader broke and ran for a door at the back of the warehouse.

There, the man tugged at the door's handle, for naught. Jack had gone all over the warehouse's exterior and sealed most of the exits with a quick-drying sealant used for vacuum hull repairs on space shuttles. Which Haji had gone over with some weird device he'd made during one of his rare previous periods of dominance, melding the metal of the walls and doors to the sealant somehow, and then attaching other contraptions to the doors. The effects of which manifested quickly went a good charge of electricity jolted the guy tugging on the door, and dropping him.

The soldiers made the mistake of looking back in shock at their leader. Kira managed to cover the distance between them and him in the seconds that their attention was diverted, and the blood flowed anew.

- The Butcher -

**Warehouse 8 Exterior**

Payne stood inside the blockade of military police surrounding the warehouse SpecOpsIntel had been keeping its eyes on for a while. The cacophony from within would chill the blood of any normal civilian, but for the majority of those present, it was business as usual when dealing with Blue Cosmos supporters with Jack and Kira. Especially the SpecOpsIntel medics, waiting outside the encirclement for when they would be needed.

Behind him and to his left, Karl stood, listening appreciatively to the screams.

"Huh. Looks like we might just get some use out of this."

"Indeed." Andrew replied. "The survivors will be frightened enough of Kira and Jack to do anything we asked. You have the disinformation ready?"

"Yep. Fake plans for the Tetsujin, detailed. Looks more like a scaled-down Augury design rather than anything we have in the works, and even more screwed up than the Constantine designs."

"Good. We'll dress the transmission up as a panicked last-minute broadcast. Rip the audio recordings from the OMU-LW and have whoever we have living scream out some stereotypical last words, edit that in and send it."

A particularly shrill screech ripped through the air, causing both officers to pause in their discussion and eye the warehouse, before returning to the topic.

"Think we should throw in an underestimate of our defense batteries?" Karl asked.

"No. We've had surveillance on this cell since the first few members stepped off of the boats and shuttles, for all of two weeks." Payne replied. "As is, we'll probably need to edit most of the information in your plans to make it seem a bit more realistic. Step aside." Karl did better, taking two steps to his left to avoid the flying, then bouncing head. A second later, both of them heard one of the MPs scream. Both sighed.

Then the MPs posted closer to the warehouse entrance aimed their rifles towards the door and shouted for whoever they were aiming at to put their hands out. Turning to see, both officers see Jack, dragging something behind him, and an armored figure trotting out of the warehouse, with the aforementioned MPs shakily aiming their rifles at them, notably keeping the majority of their attention on Jack.

At least, until the other person's helmet splits, the 'mask' portion and the rest folding away to store themselves on the front and back of the armor, respectively, revealing the fact that Kira was wearing the armor. Which caused the MPs to refocus on him, drop their weapons, stand at attention and salute. Rather nervously, which was somewhat understandable, considering that while plenty of the civilian population loved Kira, the military was the ones who had heard of his 'exploits' and thus were rather doubtful of his mental stability.

"Ooooooh Aaaaannnndddreeeeewww! I have a gift!" Jack called out, causing all within audible range to shudder aside from Andrew and Karl. At the same time, the madman lifted the thing he was dragging, revealing it to be a man in a singed set of OMNI body armor over civvie clothes. There was an audible snap as the man's left arm, by which Jack was holding him, broke. This elicited another series of screams.

Andrew motioned for the SpecOpsIntel medics, who rushed over to the man and retrieved him from Jack's grasp, giving him the best medical care Orb's military had. At least, until Payne was through with him.

"Kira. Jack." Andrew addressed both of the teenagers. "Later on, me and the Chief Representative are gonna have a discussion about performing these acts under these circumstances without previous approval from me, him, or another viable authority, such as Colonel Hertz."

"Aw, come on Andy!" Jack said, using the name that most irritated Andrew. "Kira needed to vent a little after hearing about JOSH-A!" That gave pause to Andrew. Merely mentioning the Grimaldi Front around Kira was enough to get the Ultimate Coordinator into, as some of the younger, female members of SpecOpsIntel put it, a state of adorable moeness. Telling him about something similar to JOSH-A, on the other hand, sent Kira into one of his...for lack of a better word, 'SEED Rages'.

Before Andrew could issue a reply of any sort though, he was alerted to a rather significant event.

- The Troopers -

**Orb Airspace, C-X12 Perseus  
4:43 AM**

Just inside Orb airspace, a C-X12 Perseus, an OMNI Enforcer aircraft designed for heavy loads and high fuel efficiency (based off of remaining design papers of the C-920 Marathon from 2519, in turn loosely inspired by the C-130 Hercules in the 21st Century) and used for just about anything, slowly gliding down towards the Onogoro Airstrip.

Sitting in the small passenger compartment behind the cockpit and forward of the cargo hold, Gary was impressed with Ryan's piloting, making flying this rather worn plane seem easy. While the design itself was new and relatively advanced for OMNI tech, the specific plane had suffered greatly. There were holes in the airframe, for one thing, and some gaping slashes on the outer parts of the wings. All of it due to the...the..._thing_ in the cargo compartment.

Not only had it nearly been the death of Boris, who was lying on two of the seats in the back row, recovering, it had eaten Gary's rifle and gnawed on John a bit, and gave Ryan quite the lashing. Literally. Lilou was sitting up front in the co-pilots seat, as far away from the thing possible without exiting the plane.

"Ah, it's good to be returning to Orb." Drake, sitting next to Gary, rasped.

"So, you're one of General Payne's spies?" Gary asked.

"Yes, in this instance."

"How long have you been doing this?"

"Well, this is my first time as a spy," Drake explained, shrugging slightly. "But I've kept Blue Cosmos feeding out of my hand for almost two decades now. Most of their and OMNI's tech you see these days are a result of my work, directly or indirectly."

"Sabotage?"

"Only slightly. They actually have some good engineers working for them, but the lot of them are civilian contractors, and spent a bit more time fighting over contracts rather than actual work."

"Huh."

"You wouldn't believe the amount of corporate espionage they have going on. Azrael Industries itself suffers from some conflicts among their employees. And most of their work goes into their super-soldier project, the Biological Central Processing Units."

"BCPUs. I've heard of those, they're like that lady that beat Kira on the way here, right?"

"And the cyborgs that you faced off with on Aprilius. The term applies rather equally to either class though, as the pilots are seen more as parts for their Gundams, while the brains of the others serve quite literally as CPUs for the cyborgs."

"Hmmmm..."

"And much of the rest of them spend time researching a way around the Neutron Jammers."

"That makes sense. Aside from the energy crisis, they'd want to nuke the PLANTS again."

"The only amount of cooperation the whole lot of them have seen on a single project, is the Mephistopheles."

"What's that?"

"Classified, Payne's ears and above only."

Gary settled back in his seat. OMNI and Blue Cosmos were a heck of a lot more screwed than he'd thought.

_"Attention passengers, we are now landing. Please fasten your seatbelts, and for Glenn's sake, DON'T OPEN THE CARGO HOLD!"_ Ryan blared through the speaker system.

Except for Drake, the passengers shuddered at the thought.

The plane's forward speed decreased significantly as the flaps deployed, and small retrothrusters flared, some of the flaps ripping off from the stress and more than a few of the retrothrusters sputtering out. Simultaneously, the main engines cut power, and high-powered lift fans in the wings, tail and body activated, allowing the plane to drift towards the landing strip. It slowed further when the landing gear deployed, and only rolled a few meters upon ground contact.

Stepping out of the plane, Gary and Drake were met by Andrew, Karl, Kira, and Jack, accompanied by a large contingent of MPs.

"Sir! Captain Gary Shimizu reporting for-"

"Oh Rex! Come out!" Drake interrupted.

"Oh shit! Duck and Cover!" In well-trained synchronization, all of Shoki team, and the MPs, dove for the nearest cover from the opening cargo hold doors, the former shuddering at the thought of what awaited them.

Out of the doors prowled an enormous reptile, fifteen meters long from snout to tail, and armored in scales less like those of fish and reptiles, and more like those of medieval armor in appearance. The main body structure was that of a monitor lizard such as Komodo Dragons, yet with leg builds like felines. Short ridges decorated the upper skull, some of them grown long and tusk-like out from the head. The eyes were a bright green, with slitted pupils, and when the beast hissed at the array of meat before it, it revealed eight-inch fangs that dripped with what the more frightened individuals hoped was saliva.

Most of those gathered were shaking in their various footwear, at least until Drake started patting the beast on its snout.

"That's a good boy Rex, good boy. Hiss, don't bite." Drake hissed through his mask.

"Hmm. He's really grown." Karl commented. Aside from Drake, he, Andrew, Kira and Jack were the only ones who weren't hiding. Andrew pulled a sizable slab of meat and tossed it towards Rex. The reptile's tongue snapped out, snagged the cut, and retracted back into Rex's mouth, the dragon swallowing it down in a single gulp.

"Wait...you guys knew about this thing?" Lilou asked, astonished and hiding behind one of the Perseus' landing gears.

"Of course. We met Rex shortly after Drake created him." Andrew intoned, scratching the aforementioned genetic beast on one of its ridges. "He was a lot smaller then. Only about six meters long. We used him as a tracker, back when OMNI was using individual spies instead of entire networks and bases."

Shoki team stared.

- The Author -

Ugh. This is turning out to be one of my worst summers that I can remember.

("Let's see...the power outage...the air conditioning...the virus...and now the diet...")

Indeed. To all of those out there enjoying your supposed quick weight-loss diet...I don't know how you can stand it.

("Maybe they're better cooks that don't need to rely on their mothers to cook every meal that doesn't need to be microwave?")

I miss my ramen. But moving on from my personal issues, despite how much I want to rant about them...

I really don't think this is one of my better chapters. In fact...yeah...probably one of the worst ones...

("Let the depression sink in! You want to commit seppuku, for the shame of your dishonor!")

Hey, Looney Tunes: Back in Action is on!

("Damn. I was close")

Anyway...

OMNI really can't get a for-real spy ring working properly in Orb. Aside from the fact that most of their competent commanders are those that they can't trust due to ideological and/or moral issues, it's hard to keep any info out of the hands of a genius hacker, not to mention the nation with perhaps the best communications interception and security.

Plus, Kira no likey Cyclopes Systems. Or scenarios like JOSH-A. This provides much amusement for us, and slight annoyance on the part of Kira's friends in Orb.

And I finally got around to showing Rex! Who is just as much a cyborg as a crime against nature!

("Really?")

He eats metal.

("Oh. Well...")

Review Replies:

Infinite Freedom: Damn. I was hoping the plot wasn't that transparent...

Alex Yamato: Yeah, Shoki Team really doesn't have a good time during this mission...  
We still need the obligatory awesome Gundam duel from him.  
It's Kira. People die after Cyclopes Systems go off (yes, in this continuity, there has been a bit more than two...although not on the same scales) And usually by mecha and/or knife.  
I now wish to create a Cyborg Ninja SpecOpsIntel team. This new enthusiasm is brought on by the latest Metal Gear Solid: Rising Trailer.

Mordalfus Grea: I take your Rocket Launcher Jack and raise you an Evangelion-Piloting Jack. With a suitably-sized rocket launcher. Actually, one of those rocket-firing shotguns from Borderlands, Eva-sized. Which is actually the destructive scale I'm going for.  
Probably.  
I'm actually not sure, although the last one sounds good.

Kojiro Kun: I like going into detail when I'm in a good mood. I'll probably delay a few of the bigger chapters just until I get that gleeful sense of mayhem.

G. Wagers: Yep. Wait until I show Panama.  
Only partial character chit-chat. It's obligatory when trying to advance the plot somewhat. But for the most part, there will be blood. And gore. And explosions. And...you now what? Let's go with the blanket description of BLOODY MURDER.

Knightmare Gundam of Ni


	51. Phase 34: Seul Contre Tous

_**Disclaimer and Notes of Ownership:**_ I do not own the Gundam Franchise, or any of the characters from said franchise. If I did, I would probably use the massive fortunes resulting from that to develop real-life mobile suits and conquer the world, with a corresponding level of glee and madness.  
("He actually drew up plans for it too.")  
I do however, own all the technical designs labeled with PGAT, XHMA, MMA, XSBF, XABF, PMU, MLWS, CI, CPH and SDDGN in their alphanumeric designations, along with a portion of those labeled XGAT. I own Jack Kagizaki's mind, body and soul, as well as those of Captain Gary Shimizu and his Shoki Team. Along with that goes the Abaddons, the Grigori, and good ol' David Sariel. Drake too. If anyone should use any of these without my permission...well, I'll mope. And then I'll find you and crush you underneath a tank. Filled with high-explosives. And all the mopey, whiny Gundam protagonists that didn't grow something resembling a spine.  
Similarly, Velshard has dibs on almost the entire line of replacement units for ZAFT, excluding one. He has administrative privileges over the Noctoraptor (Enhanced), Ferox, and Verin Gundams. He also has ownage over the horrifying abomination or deification (depends on your point of view) of all that's good and pure in this universe, otherwise called the Tetsujin. The beings of Andrew Victor Payne, Karlton William Hertz, and the Van Dalygon family are belong to him.  
The Megalodon design belongs to...well Kojiro Kun gave me the idea.  
The ZONGS design belongs to animefan29.  
00virtuezero's contributions include the Gundams Repulse and Outlaw, and his OCs Wesley Mercis, and Michael Archer.

Gundam Seed: Killer's Realm

Phase 34: Seul Contre Tous

- The Killer and The Songstress -

**Zenopolis City, Universal Street, Cosmic Mall  
April 21, 71 CE  
9:37 A.M.**

Kira was uncertain as to how he'd gotten into this situation. He was somewhat certain that Jack and Athrun factored into it somehow.

But at the moment, he was too...happy, to bother thinking about that. It was a stark contrast from a few days ago, when he'd heard about the Cyclopes activation at JOSH-A.

"How does this look?" Lacus asked, holding up a pink kimono to herself for Kira to judge.

"W-wonderful, Lacus." Kira stuttered. Their relationship had been, for the most part, that of acquaintances. They'd had few interactions on the Barachiel, and most of those had been in the cafeteria where they'd all eaten together, and thus there had been little change to improve their relationship.

It was...strange that he felt such attraction to her. With most people he was either good friends with, coolly neutral, or outright hostile. Lacus though...She was different. Something about her made him feel...peaceful. Serene, even. Something he hadn't felt for years.

Lacus, for her part, found Kira cute. She couldn't match the passive, pleasant young man before her with the ruthless murderer many of the stories she'd heard from the people in the Century Apartments painted him as.

Both teens were in the clothing section of the Cosmic Mall, the female part specifically, where Lacus was looking at some Orb styles. Most of the clothes she was checking were far beyond anything someone less than a billionaire could afford on a regular basis, but she was Siegel Clyne's daughter. Rich only barely started to describe their bank account.

Kira, as the designated male, carried all of Lacus's purchases, struggling to keep the bags straight and the clothes from falling out. It was...rather difficult. But at least they were away from the underwear section. He'd been certain, from the heat in his cheeks, that he'd glowed red.

Then his phone buzzed.

Cursing silently, Kira finagled the bags around so he could shove his hand into his left pocket, retrieve the phone (A needlessly advanced device with enough encryption protocols to match the entirety of the Atlantic Federations intelligence services) and answer the call. Lacus noticed his expression darken after seven seconds, before he replied to whoever was speaking with a short "yes, I'll be right there." and hung up.

"What's happening?" Lacus asked.

"The Alliance is coming." Kira responded. "We have to go."

- The Captain, The Hawk, and The Crew -

**Orb, Onogoro Military Port, Dock 17  
April 21, 71 CE  
11:15 A.M.**

Murrue Ramius, with Mu La Flaga and the rest of the Barachiel's enlisted crew, stood on the dock, gazing in awe at the Barachiel. Originally, the Barachiel was pure white, heavenly almost. Over time, through both the fake battles with ZAFT, and the live-or-die skirmishes with OMNI, that white coloring was marred by carbon burns, scarred by missile fragments, and quite literally blown off. Parts of it had melted during the orbital descent, and then later cooled to form strange shapes, almost looking like flesh.

Now, though, the Barachiel was almost pitch-black, all across its main hull. The thrusters had sweeping strokes of blue and white in a flame-like design that escalated towards the mouth of the propulsion system. One either side of the bridge was painted the sunburst of Orb, winglike background outlined in gold.

More of the changes were less cosmetic. No longer was the bridge exposed to the world by glass, instead armored by triple-thick hyper alloy laminate armor. Instead of using a clear glass view modified via laser-projected viewscreens, the bridge display would use three-dimensional Colloid-based holographic screens, utilizing data taken from both the Barachiel's standard systems and newly installed 'Camera LIght Distance and Ranging' systems, or CLIDAR, along with other, more standard camera designs.

"So, do you like it?" The presenter spoke, regaining their attention. Turning as one, the crew gazed upon Erica Simmons.

"I-it's...stunning." Murrue managed to say. She'd expected some repairs, and a resupply. Not those, _and_ a complete repaint and minor refit of the bridge systems!

"Oh, and the Barachiel has been registered as the CPH-X Uriel in Orb's mainframe, and Morgenroete's records of the Barachiel have been modified to show it stopped briefly at Orb for repairs and resupply before using the Mass Driver to ascend to space, under cover of still remaining an OMNI Enforcer vessel." Erica continued.

"Why?" Mu wondered.

"General Payne likes to avoid the international legality of OMNI defectors serving in Orb." Erica explained. ""As well, we've prepared new identities in Orb for all of you." She noticed the majority of them looking shiftily. "What? What's the matter?"

"Ahem, well." Natarle started. "While your offer is much appreciated, most of us have families and friends, and wish to return to our homes."

"Ah, I understand." Erica nodded. "General Payne gave me this to give to all of you should there be any refusals." She took an envelope out of her pocket and handed it to Murrue. Who opened it and took out the letter, starting to read it silently. Which was, of course, negated with Mu reading it aloud over her shoulder.

"We understand your desiring to return to your homelands and families, but we unfortunately cannot allow you to do so. Not only do you know too much about Kira, Jack, and Orb in general, but your experience with the Barachiel/Uriel is too valuable to pass up. Orb operatives can recover your families easily enough. If you continue to resist, you will be restrained..." Slowly, Murrue turned her head and glared at him. "Oooohhhh boy."

Before anything could happen, Murrue's phone rang, and she answered it.

"Hello?" She listened intently, and everyone noticed her face paling significantly.

- The Bigwigs -

**Orb, 'Enma's Locker', Main Briefing Room  
April 21, 71 CE  
9:40 P.M.**

"Alright, let's get this meeting over with." Karl sighed, easing into a chair.

This, the main briefing room of the complex, was several hundred meters below the surface of Orb. The center of the room was dominated by a perfectly circular table with a projector embedded in the center, mirror-imaged above. Around the table were several seats, all occupied by high-ranking military and political persons, among them Major-General Andrew Victor Payne of Special Operations and Intelligence, dressed in his uniform and with katana sheathed at his side. He, as the commander of the elite SpecOpsIntel forces, sat next to the 'head' of the table, defined by the one who presided there.

Rear Admiral Kei Todoka of the Orb Navy, an Asian man with gray-black hair and brown eyes, dressed in Orb's blue-and-white naval officer dress uniform, sat on the other side of the table's 'head', as the commander of one of the main theaters of battle;

General Arnold Conner of the Orb Army, a descendant of Irish immigrants had salt-and-pepper hair and green eyes. He was physically larger than many of those present, with a burly physique and a semi-serious demeanor. Dressed in the darker gray-and-deep blue of the Army, he had a place next to Payne;

General Jean Schmidt of the Orb Air Force was German, blond-haired and blue-eyed. He was medium of height and lean in his muscular definition. He was dressed in the air forces version of the uniform, replacing the blue with a lighter version of the color. In mood, he was normally jocular, but the import of this meeting turned him coldly ruthless. As the one whose military branch had the least impact on the coming battle, being more concerned with the upper atmosphere and anti-space segments, he was seated next to Todoka.

At the head of the table stood Uzumi Nara Athha.

Along with them were many of the other civilian, military, and political entities that held Orb's fate in their hands. Amongst other governments, such a large gathering would never have been witnessed at a meeting of such importance. In Orb though, Andrew's SpecOpsIntel teams knew everything they did, and many of the powers had the same idealism as their ruler.

Kira, Jack, Liene, and Cagalli stood around close to the head of the table. Two of them were, despite their age, experienced combatants and vague political entities, another a person of meticulous thought, and the last a veritable firestorm of idealism and youthful courage. Their advice and thoughts would be useful at the least.

On the ceiling, a small projector, equipped with the brand-new Mirage Colloid-based hologram technology many of Orb's most important facilities now incorporated, flickered to life and beamed out an image of a beautiful woman in her early 30s of above average height and a slender build with blond hair pulled back into a braided bun with a crimson ribbon in it and has luminescent green eyes, wearing an eclectic mix of a modern white female officer's dress uniform with royal blue trim and covered by a few pieces of ancient knight armor from the 15th & 16th centuries. The armor consists of a breast plate, gauntlets, greaves, and some skirt armor of a very shiny silvery wrought with very intricate gold filigree in the shapes of rose vines with a golden cross on the breast plate containing a Sapphire gem, on her back a small gladiatorial shield with the crest of Orb on it.

Most of those present weren't at all surprised by the hologram. Liene, notably, was apparently not affected at all, except for a slight stiffening that those who knew him would see.

With everyone and thing present, the meeting started.

"First off, our spies and satellites have confirmed this." Andrew began smoothly. "There are several OMNI Enforcer fleets moving towards Orb. To be specific, the First and Second Pacific Fleets, the Second Atlantic Fleet, and two Task Forces from their naval bases at mainland Asia. All of these are accompanied by matching forces of mobile weapon formations and air support. They will arrive within a day, although they are already well within the flight time of their aerial forces."

"So they finally made their move." Todoka whispered, as the hologram projector on the table activated, showing the fleets on a three-dimensional terrain map of Orb and the waters around it for over a thousand kilometers.

"Yes. It appears the Pacific fleet has also scared up some support from a small Task Group based in Hawaii, and both of the Atlantic Fleets are composed mainly of remodeled carriers, and have also received reinforcements. I suspect the majority of their forces will be mobile suits, although some of these appear to be amphibious transport carriers, for infantry and light armor." Andrew replied, scanning the information cybernetically.

"And their targets?" Uzumi asked.

"The smaller Task Forces are angling to deal with the cities on both our northern and western coasts. The Atlantic Fleet is heading west, staying south of us, presumably targeting our largest military port on the west coast, while both Pacific Fleets are targeting here, Zenopolis City, and Onogoro Island as well as Kaguya." Andrew supplied.

"...Alright. What do you suggest?"

"I recommend Ballistic Re-entry Vehicle assault, conventional high-explosive warheads, from both the Ame-No-Mihashira and Missile Satellite Group Four." Andrew replied

"Denied." Uzumi said. "Such an act is in direct violation of Orb's ideals. There may yet be a peaceful solution to this conflict."

"Sir in times such as these, ideological goals must be superseded by stark reality." Andrew coolly retorted, rising to his feet, and standing next to the Chief Representative. Who turned to glare at him.

The two were virtually nose to nose and were staring each other down like a pair of old monsters, one a great Lion, the other a veritable Thunderbird of ancient lore. Those who were present would say that their was enough wrath between the two's glares to kill a million times over and no one would dare step between them out of simple mortal fear.

Andrew curled his lips back in something akin to an enraged sneer, baring his teeth and growled.

But this was no paltry human imitation of a primal sound. No, this was a Marvelous Growl. So richly layered with scorn and menace that listening to it was like enduring a blistering hackle raising tirade.

As the sound rose and fell through the room for almost a minute there wasn't a person present who didn't feel a great deal of their nerve get washed away by a sea of nearly mindless fear. Even Jack, the resident split personae psychopath, felt what was arguably his most insane personality almost literally shut itself up into the deepest depths of his mind. Animals after all have an instinctive knowledge of when to run and hide from a superior predator.

As it was the tension in the room was like a garroting wire around everyone's throats, with two of the most influential and respected men in Orb looking about ready to kill each other, no one was entirely sure what to do.

For Kira things, were relatively simple; Andrew was armed with his traditional katana, Uzumi carried a standard issue pistol in the small of his back, Andrew could conceivably kill Uzumi well before he or anyone else could do anything to stop him. However the young prince knew the SpecOpsIntel Commander was a rational man despite being extremely passionate over the safety and prosperity of Orb. That thought still didn't keep him from partially drawing his balisong knife though.

Uzumi for his part was the proverbial "Immovable Object" and didn't so much as twitch as he held the younger man's crimson gaze steady and firm before speaking in a rumbling power filled tone akin to any old lion.

"General Payne, you know that I would never order you to compromise the safety of Orb and it's citizenry but I am asking you as your 'King' to uphold the ideals of our country no matter the cost. For I will not discard my Pride and Honor if it means staining those ideals. Not while one chance remains for an alternate solution."

Andrew recoiled and inhaled sharply as though he had been struck though the look of maddened rage never really left his eyes.

As the general stood there he finally broke their gaze by slowly closing his eyes and deeply inhaling several times, each being slightly slower and more relaxed than the last. With each breath he took all present could gradually feel the metaphysical garrote around their throats gradually loosen and the tension flow out of the room.

Finally opening his eyes to lock with the lion's once more Vicious' calm immutable gaze had returned.

"With respect sir, god damn you."

The prime minister of Orb smiled ever so slightly at the cool reply from one of his most trusted subordinates.

"Perhaps but there's nothing wrong with hoping for the best."

"So long as one of us is prepared for the worst." Andrew spoke in a nearly dead tone, Uzumi's face fell slightly at those words.

"Indeed."

Uzumi then turned with all eyes on him and strode towards the door to the council room to await what was most probably an ultimatum from the Federation.

"Sir."

Pausing just before opening the door Uzumi turned to look back at his general with a slightly questioning gaze.

"Good luck."

The old Lion simply smirked in reply before exiting the command room, for his part Andrew had a distinctly sour look as though he had lost some sort of unofficial contest. He was broken from his thoughts though by the rather rude and sarcastic commentary of one feminine voice, the words coming in from ceiling-mounted speakers as the hologram's lips moved in sync.

"Wow. And here I was thinking that little testosterone pissing contest was never going to be over."

The general simply shot a dirty look in the direction of the A.I.'s projection before sitting himself back down to began preparing for the invasion.

"What does the Army have in Orb right now?" Andrew asked, more for the sake of the rest of the political leadership than himself. General Connor reached out waved his hand through part of the hologram, materializing a holographic keyboard. He air-typed in coordinates, dark blue dots appearing on the holographic island, varying in size in accordance to unit strength, and labels floated in the air above them with unit names. "I see. Naval assets?" Connor swiped at the keyboard, sending it spinning counter-clockwise around the table until Todoka's outstretched hand stopped it. He began to type, and similarly, dots appeared in the ocean of the hologram, this time a bright sea-green. The display ended with the appearance of one dot deep under the surface.

Andrew furrowed his brow at the last unit, before nodding at Todoka. "General Schmidt?" Jean reached over and 'grabbed' the keyboard, bringing it over to his seat, and typed in two coordinate plots and units before moving the hologram to Andrew. The holographic map zoomed out until the upper atmosphere was in view, two large and bright lime-green pips glowing.

Payne was already inputting his units, small dark blue, practically black, dots popping up all over Orb, with the largest concentrated around the holographic Zenopolis City and Onogoro Island. Even after he was finished, he continued typing. Lava-yellow and blood-red contacts appeared in the OMNI Enforcer fleets, indicating below and above-water threats according to SpecOpsIntel's information.

The confirmation of what everyone already knew was sobering. Orb's forces, while impressive for a nation of their size, were drastically outnumbered by the army based on the fleets OMNI sent.

"We can't defeat them." Liene muttered.

"No." Andrew answered. "But we don't have to. Evacuations have been ongoing for the last month. Our underground shelters can safely house maybe a fifth of our populace for maybe five months. The rest are going into orbit, for the Ame-no-Mihashira for further transit to our colonies, including Namsuul and Megistus."

"Damn it." Jean swore. "Can't we do anything to keep them off?"

"Short of selling our souls?" Kira retorted. "No." Andrew nodded at that, in agreement.

"The Chief Representative may try for a peaceful solution." Liene said, slowly. "But Blue Cosmos' leaders have the Alliance leadership in a stranglehold. Orb will not survive accepting any 'peace' involving them. All we can do is make sure there are people who can rebuild."

All around, virtually everyone in attendance grimly nodded, excepting a few odd ones, among them the Seiran family members.

- The Destroyer -

**Pacific Ocean, Grigori, Captain's Quarters  
April 22, 71 CE  
8:52 A.M.  
**

Edward sat, cross-legged, on the floor of his quarters, seeming as an out-of-place statue in the spartan decor. Beyond token appearances on the bridge and brief visits to the hangers to check on his Gundam, the Abaddon had stayed cloistered in his room. Rumors, that ever-present disease on any and every ship ever existing, flitted to and fro among the crew as to just what he was doing in there, ranging from masturbating to some sort of attempt at universal clarity.

Truth be told, the latter was closer. Edward spent time before each battle...planning, for lack of a better term. Mentally going through each and every possible strategic and tactical maneuver his enemy, the feared Andrew Victor Payne, may do. In this specific exercise, Edward found himself stymied at almost every imaginary turn.

Payne and his fellows were just too good at information control. Edward had received the data packet containing the Orbites' mobile suit schematics from one of OMNI's last spy rings in the country, and despite the uplifted hope of his crew, he'd disregarded it as disinformation. And without that crucial tidbit, one of many missing from the picture...

This was one of the few times his mental exercises pointed him to a path less than certain victory. Edward had no doubt that, in classical thought, they would win. There was just too much force brought to bear against Orb. It would, however, be a Pyrrhic victory. The enemy knew their objective. An elementary student could tell their objective. And Andrew Payne had a reputation for denying enemies their objectives.

A tone indicated the arrival of Sariel, who opened the door a second later.

"Sir, Azrael wants to see you on the bridge. It's time."

Wordlessly, Edward rose and turned towards the door, already dressed in his dress uniform. He departed his quarters with one thought.

_This is going to be one hell of a battle._

- The Author -

("Whooh boy! This is it! The Big Bad Battle! Hmm? Oh, you're wondering why I, K'Gon am speaking instead of your beloved author? Well...")

HAH! How do you like that Zerg? I just nuked you in your FACE!

("...Yeah, our dear author, Knightmare Gundam of Ni, has found God. Or, rather, Blizzard. As you all should know, Starcraft II was released last month. And our boy here not only got it, he got the **_Collector's Edition._** Yeah, you read that right. His mother picked it up last week for the Mini-Thor vanity pet for World of Warcraft.")

Ultralisks eh? well, eat TWELVE THORS! BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAH

("Oh, dear lord! What did they do to you? That's...that's abominable. Anyway, he's been going through the campaign. No guts to face the veterans, but damn does he know how stomp on the computer.")

You want more? Hows about another NUKE!

("Oy vey, that must be the fifteenth time you've done that. Yeah, he's got like, twelve Spectres, calling in nuke strikes. Yeesh. Anyway, with Mr. Terran Dominator here off in his own little apocalyptic galaxy of nuclear explosion and building-sized siege walkers, I'm left to finish up the chapter. So...here I go. Things are on the cusp of the epic battle, which with Velshard's stuff, should be rather destructive. Abaddon's lot is prepared for a friggen cataclysm, and Azraels still a frickin pighead. On the chapter title, Seul Contre Tous, it's translated as either "Alone Against All" or "I Stand Alone" which basically sums up Orbs position here.")

("Oh, and there's bad news. The story's going to be put on a little...short...hiatus, just for all the mechanical details to get straightened out.")

HAH! I just mind-controlled your Ultralisks B!TCH!

("And to get this idiot detoxing. Sheesh this is gonna be a while. I should be able to write for The Demon and The Dragon though. Anything you wanna add Nuke-Happy?")

Eat Yamato Cannon Queenie!

("...And so the Queen of Blades gets offed by six simultaneous radioactive nuke-produced plasma blasts to the face. Anyway, see you guys later!")

K'GoN

EDIT: ("Whoops! Almost forgot the Review Replies!

Kojiro Kun: Doesn't get more different from stark pacifist than semi-crazed slicer

Alex Yamato: In lieu of the normal author, I thank you.  
He gets mad and activates Seed.  
It's friggin screwed up.  
Oh yeah. The idiot wouldn't put a dragon in the story without writing in some scene were it munches on someone or something we don't like.  
It was more to do with Rex than the Cyclopes. Try wrasslin that into a plane. I imagine Gary still has scars on his breastplate from the fangs.  
It should be.  
I think they're awesome!

Mathiasosx: The author loves them. Yeah, OMNI's troops are gonna get a rude awakening.  
heh.

Evci: Thank you

Cyspark01: Eh, they're probably better off. At least Chimamare wasn't up.  
Actually, if anything, ZAFT is more likely to profit from the corpses, since Gary and team couldn't very well pick them up and bring them in when they had to worry about VIPs. Plus incendiary self-destruct systems work very well for their internals.

Robby Cartwright: Thanks.

And, again, see you all later")

K'Gon


	52. Omake: The Inner Workings of Jack

Gundam Seed Killer's Realm

A/N: Alright, I'm back. No thanks to a certain small robot.  
("I told you it was an accident!")  
You gnawed the router!  
("It looked good and old, how was I supposed to know you were still using it?")  
It had cables attached! Ugh, I'm too disgusted to deal with you right now. I'll feed you to the Zerg later.  
("Good lord you're dumb. Zerg infest organics-")  
You do recall my findings on the Infested Gauss Rifle, correct?  
("...")

Good. Now, K'GoN was only partially correct when he said Killer's Realm was going on hiatus. The main storyline will be put on hold as both me and Velshard finalize our mechanical designs. However, I'll be writing little Omakes and Pseudo-Phases designed to shed a little light on the differences between Killer's Realm and Canon Seed, ranging from a raid on a Blue Cosmos encampment by a SpecOpsIntel team, to the secret of how a slight of a girl manage to topple Yzak, a well-trained and experience Red Coat.  
But, without further ado, let me proceed with this, an Omake inspired by the style of some of Velshard's rather more generalized articles (generalized meaning they spread out from a single profile to an entire multi-page science report):

Omake: The Inner Workings of Jack Kagizaki

**Encryption Code: OMEGA-KAI-ARCHER-MU  
Public Key: N/A  
To: CODENAME - BOGEYMAN  
From: ARTURIA  
****Subject: JACK KAGIZAKI  
Classification: TOP SECRET, CODE-WORD ******* *******  
Security Override: CRIMSON LEVEL IV  
Primary Server File-Transfer Protocol (LARGESS): TRUE  
A.I. Over Watch Protocol (GOSPEL): TRUE**

_/ESTABLISHING LINK WITH PRIMARY SERVER/  
__/LINK ESTABLISHED/__  
/REMOTE FILE EXTRACTION-RECONSTITUTION COMPLETE/  
/OPENING FILE/_

Dated: 7-19-70

Jack Kagizaki is an interesting human, in more than one way. Through remote communications with the nanomachines populating his body, a great deal of his history and psychology has been laid bare. Along with this were detailed records of Jack's body. Apparently, Jack's physiology is even less human than that of Sixth-Generation Symbions.

_**REGARDING THE 'TSUKURIGOE' NANOMACHINES  
**_

This is due to the Earth Alliances 'Caligula' nanomachines, which were originally a substandard combination of the Alliances own prototype Third-Generation* nanomachines and our production-grade Fourth-Generation* and prototype Fifth-Generation* nanomachines, which they acquired from the collective corpses of 5th Marine Battalion's 27th Infantry Platoon. Whatever trauma that killed 27th Platoon somehow disabled their nanomachines so that the Alliances own nanomachines could dismantle or reprogram them.

Apparently, the Caligula nanomachines were mass-produced internally by surgically-implanted micro-factories which also programmed them them duties. Much of these involved procedures considered rather base by Orb nano-technicians, complicating them and proving fatal in 97% of the cases. The other 3% (i.e., Jack) was not fatal, but proved to be quite problematic. Unlike modern Orb nanomachine programs, the Caligula machines did not avoid modifications to the brain. The nanomachines' own data is strangely unclear, being badly erroneous, damaged, or wiped completely, but an event occurred during the cerebral modifications that effectively scrambled the AI of the nanomachines of the cerebrum.

Now, individually, nanomachine AI are only about as smart as a 22nd-century calculator. However, the approximate 5.78 x 10^7 nanomachines in Jack's cerebrum were interconnected by the event, creating two separate AI personalities, each the equivalent of a low-level AICA.

These were of course the pseudo-personalities self-identified as 'Chimamare' and 'Hajikidasu'.

Records from the nanomachines indicate that at precisely .0000056871 seconds after the cerebral event, the collective nanomachine personality 'Chimamare' implemented a newly generated procedure involving the synchronization of each of his constituent nanomachines to Jack's bodily movement neurons, effectively allowing him control over Jack's body. At .0000621 seconds, Chimamare had full control over the body and proceeded to eliminate all surrounding Alliance personnel and destroy the Caligula facility. At 92.02109 seconds, the personality 'Hajikidasu' began to contact and reprogram the nanomachines in the other bodily areas, effectively giving birth to hundreds of lesser collective personalities.

128.741 seconds after the event, Chimamare left the remains of the Caligula facility and Hajikidasu finalized the reprogramming of the last 1.27 x 10^5 nanomachines.

The next day, Hajikidasu had fully reprogrammed all the Caligula nanomachines and they had begun to reproduce, creating 2,982 rapidly growing collective personalities scattered throughout the entirety of Jack's body. The total collective processing power of the nanomachines at this point equaled one of the prototype quantum supercomputers at Huynh Industries R&D.

This was not due to Alliance technology however, this was entirely due to the successive generational evolution of the nanomachines - collectively self-identified as the 'Tsukurigoe', or 'Unnatural Voices' (Note: Investigate Tsukurigoe predilection for Japanese identifiers.) Unlike current Orb nanomachines, the Tsukurigoe are not limited to creating only current-generation nanomachine designs. Each personality directs its base nanomachine collective in its reproductive efforts, first creating three next-generation bodies per currently operating reproduction nanomachine, before uploading an updated AI program into two of the bodies and then transferring the original AI of each last-gen nanomachine into the last body. The next-generation nanomachines then ensure to update all AI before using the now empty last-gen nanomachine bodies as base material for both further reproduction and other projects.

As such, the current Tsukurigoe nanomachines are completely different from their original Caligula bodies, and with the divergent evolutionary paths each collective takes, the internal organs, muscles, bones and nerves of Jack's body are remarkably similar to ecosystem with high biodiversity. Each collective is evolved to be the most effective in its assigned task and area of dominance inside Jack's body, including from continued modifications to Jack's body and aggressive defense against invading bacterium and hostile nanomachines.

At the time of this report, the number of nanomachines is approximately 1.2987 x 10^21 nanomachines, constituting 10,836 collective personalities. This number is divided up into 1,708 'clans' depending on specific organ, muscle, skin layer, or bone of residence, and then grouped into 139 'nations'. Rather than any individual personality retaining command of the overall nation or clan, these are ordered by collective self-interest, each personality commanding its nanomachines to benefit the whole...as well as itself.

Interestingly, along with the communal self-interest that characterizes the Tsukurigoe's 'command', there appears to be a singular entity with authority over the entire nanomachine swarm, even above the cerebral personalities 'Chimamare' and 'Hajikidasu'. This entity is, according to the Tsukurigoe's records, based in the DNA micro-computer implanted on Jack's occipital bone.

Efforts to contact this entity were inconclusive, although speculation points toward the entity being affected by the same event that created Chimamare and Hajikidasu, thus with it gaining a form of sentience and command over the maintenance nanomachines assigned to it, allowing it to evolve along with the nanomachines. Simulations postulate that the DNA computer has progressed to a developmental point giving it an equivalent computational power to that of 87% of the Tsukurigoe swarm.

Incidentally, the total power of the DNA Computer with the entire Tsukurigoe swarm and Jack's own mental power almost rival my own.

Study of the Tsukurigoe Nanomachines have recently produced the currently in-development Sixth-Generation* Nanomachines, based primarily on the digestive personality 'Hanamochinaranu' (disgusting, intolerable) the personality in charge of the lower end of the digestive tract, utilizing it's unique nanomachine command structure and methods of matter re-purposing (Incidentally, Jack has never needed to excrete solid or liquid waste).

**_REGARDING COLLECTIVE PERSONALITIES 'CHIMAMARE' AND 'HAJIKIDASU'  
_**

The collective personality known as 'Chimamare' is one of the two dominant nanomachine collectives, primarily occupying the right hemisphere of the cerebrum. This is due to the effects of the 'event' that created it, wherein the nanomachines in the right hemisphere interconnected and formed it. As such, Chimamare can be said to be entirely right-brained in its thinking processes. For some reason, Chimamare also manifested repressed aspects of Jack's personality such as sadism, brutality, psychopathy, and other, equally violent parts.

As such, Chimamare is right-handed, has a preference for melee combat, and is incredibly artistic, some of his combat actions resulting in quite impressive artistic creations on the surrounding environments.

His opposite, 'Hajikidasu' was 'born' in the left hemisphere, and as such is extremely logical and orderly. Unlike Chimamare, he is not actively malicious or violent. His 'morality' is more in line with the self-interested neutrality of the rest of the personalities, and can be said to be 'mercenary' in his allegiances, balancing loss vs. gain in any and all decisions. That said, he is an extremely good marksman with his left hand, is well-suited to ranged fighting, and can create and implement logical plans with a relative high likelihood of success within seconds.

Interestingly, neither Chimamare nor Hajikidasu actually operate independant of Jack's original personality, or even independant of each other. Indeed, all three 'core' personalities are somewhat inclusive. While any one personality has overall command of the body at the time, the subordinate two are always active, providing information and 'advice' to the currently dominant personality, regardless of whether it heeds the advice.

When dominant, Jack is the most normal of the three, acting much like a teenage boy his age, albeit with Coordinator-level reflexes and intelligence, along with a great understanding of mobile weapon design and a disturbing amount of knowledge on the human body acquired from the nanomachine personalities. He is relatively more susceptible to the influence of Chimamare and Hajikidasu than they are in regards to him or each other, a fact that may have influenced his mental development since the Caligula Project.

Respective to the others, Hajikidasu is the second most influential of the personalities, as well as the second most 'normal'. Due to his rather logical nature, he can come off as standoffish to most people he meets while dominant, an event that rarely happens due to Haji's reclusive nature. His mathematical ability gives him impressive long-range accuracy, making him the effective marksman of the trio.

Chimamare is the token 'insane' personality. Most people who meet Jack while Chim is dominant immediately dislike or outright hate him, for good reason. Insultingly rude, and a horrid prankster at the best of times, Chimamare also has a nigh-insatiable bloodlust. Self-described as an 'artist of blood and internal organs', his preferred combat area is melee, and he is an expert with all bladed weapons, as well as anything he can improvise from immediate surroundings. He is the most influential of the personalities, being the first one to attune to Jack's neurons.

_**REGARDING JACK KAGIZAKI'S BODY**_

Jack Kagizaki's body is almost completely unidentifiable as human on the inside. Years of modifications carried out by the Tsukurigoe have made Jack a Symbion of unparalleled advancement.

His entire skeletal structure has been reinforced with overlaid nanofilaments of pseudo-organic materials, including some that are only vaguely identifiable as isotopic allotropes of calcium, iron and carbon. Much of the bone marrow has been replaced with a sort of polymeric foam incorporating micromachine structures in its entirety, allowing it to create both blood cells and nanomachines, as well as reinforcing the bones' ability to withstand pressure.

The muscles have been stripped and reconstituted. Similar to the skeleton's reinforcement, elastic nanotubes of various materials replace some of the less reactive muscular fibers, while bundles of electroactive polymers envelope the muscle and nerves. As a result, Jack is far stronger than any similarly-aged teenager of adequate build, not to mention faster.

In the respiratory system, microfilters installed in almost all open spaces restrict the progress of allergens and invasive microbes, while allowing necessary gases to pass into the lungs. Unlike normal human lungs, Kagizaki's are capable of utilizing almost all gases he inhales for some purpose or another, whether directly though his altered biology, or indirectly through the resident Tsukurigoe. Waste gases produced by the processes are exhaled as normal.

The circulatory system is almost normal, disregarding the molecular webbing that reinforces their structure, or the artificial 'blood-lock' openings that allow nanomachines to enter or exit them. The heart, however, is treated the same as the muscles, giving it much greater pumping ability.

The digestive system has been almost unrecognizably overhauled. The stomach is much smaller than normal, although it seems to make up for this by a collection of extremely potent acids and the nanomachines rapidly digesting all ingested items, ranging from normal food to metal. All is rendered down into a sludge and stripped of material usable by the organs, before the rest being dumped into the lower end where Tsukurigoe collect and use the waste for reproduction or as raw material for further biology adaptation.

The nervous system shows signs of nanomachine modifications to make it similar to that of Coordinators, albeit with slight micro-armor protecting the nerve clusters and lines of automated relay micromachines surrounding the individual nerves.

In the cerebrum, Chimamare and Hajikidasu's realm, things have changed both much and little. While still recognizable as human, Jack's brain now houses a number of small (centimeter-size) cybernetic augmentations, the use of which neither collective personality was willing to provide. Also, a number of the synapses have been changed, modified, similarly to that of Coordinators. New synapses have also appeared, easily recognizable as nanomachine work. While the specific nature of the changes cannot be divined, the overall effect is apparent, with Jack capable of greater memory retention and quicker reaction speed, not to mention a greater overall intelligence. And he had a disturbing tendency to finish other peoples sentences for a year after he arrived, at least until he stopped.

_**CONCLUSION**_

The Tsukurigoe nanomachines and the chances to Jack Kagizaki's body are a wealth of biological, nano-engineering, and neurological science. The data from some of the other personalities in Jack alone could revolutionize our nano-lathing technology. I suggest that further study be done into both factors for further advancement in respective fields, and programs undertaken to implement these advances.

*See [Bogeyman]'s report _"Nanomachines and Human Kine" _for further information.

- The Author -

So, as if we all didn't know it already: Jack is majorly screwed the fck up.

("I think we could extrapolate that from the report.")

Zerg. Infested K'GoN.

("Eep.")

Review Replies:

Kojiro Kun: As the one planning the battle, trust me, it's nothing pretty. Well, from a certain point of view, hyper-beams and exploding Constantines could be considered pretty...

Alex Yamato: I'm back, now stop feeding the troll. And that would be a no on the Lina Inverse or Nanoha. K'GoN's already..._met_ Lina, and he also does not have a good track record with girls, of either magical or normal varieties.  
("Alright, so we traveled back in time and hit Chixculub. So what? It's not like we blew up anyone or thing important. And how was I supposed to know about Sailor Moon!")  
...Don't...please don't ask about Sailor Moon.  
I figured I might try to stick in a little more romance in the series, at least before the beams, and the missiles and the mines started going off.  
It's not really all that great. Just added a new sensor network for anti-Colloid purposes, armored the bridge window, and fixed a small error in the HALC rails that was keeping maximum muzzle velocity down.  
Thank Velshard for that bit. Guy knows his characters.  
Trust me, Abaddon ain't the only one getting screwed over. I'd be a bit more worried about the ground troops.  
Starcaft 2 is awesome. That's all I'm saying. Too much more could spoil it.

Cyspark01: Yes indeed...I have plans...  
Exactly what I thought.  
Chaotic? I guess you could say that. For OMNI.

Evci: Will do.

Robby Cartwright: Sorry, you'll have to wait a little. But, there will be some other, smaller battles.

Mathiasosx: In a word, yes.  
Lacus and Kira didn't really get that much characterization as a couple, did they?  
Will do.

Knightmare Gundam of Ni


	53. Omake: Nanomachines and Human Kine

Gundam Seed Killer's Realm

A/N: This is a special Omake. It's the first one that wasn't written by me! Rather, it was written by the mechanical genius who you should know and love (and your eyes should hate), Velshard! If you have any prior experience with his work (which, given that you're reading this fanfiction, have read the technical files, and first-hand felt your eyeballs and centers of cerebral cognizance burn at witnessing his mecha profiles, I'm guessing you do) then you should have the eyedrops handy.  
That said, this is probably going to be one of the most informative Omakes, better than my Jack article.  
The only work I did on this was editing, and a short addendum to add to the backstory.

Omake: Nanomachines and Human Kine

**Encryption Code: KAPPA-PI-TAB-NINER  
Public Key: N/A  
To: CODENAME - NEMEIAN  
From: CODENAME - BOGEYMAN  
Subject: NANO-MACHINE, HUMAN KINE  
Classification: TOP SECRET, CODE-WORD ******  
Security Override: BLACK LEVEL III  
Primary Server File-Transfer Protocol (MUNIFICENCE): TRUE  
A.I. Over Watch Protocol (INTEGRITY): TRUE**

_/ESTABLISHING LINK WITH PRIMARY SERVER/  
/LINK ESTABLISHED/  
/REMOTE FILE EXTRACTION-RECONSTITUTION COMPLETE/  
/OPENING FILE/_

**_REGARDING NANOMACHINE GENERATIONS_**

**1st generation:**  
First generation Nano-machines were extremely simple Nano-machines that were not mass-produced, but built individually with short operational life spans, making them quite expensive. Aside from being to recognize fellow Nano-machines these units could only perform extremely simple tasks concerning macro level molecular manipulation of specific individual elements. Initial designs were 'Carbon Gobblers' which extracted carbon from any structure they encountered, used extensively for atmospheric scrubbing systems. A critical flaw of the first generation was the very real threat they posed to organic life forms, several laboratory accidents resulted in the deaths of researchers via molecular deconstruction (see attached images, warning the images are quite horrific, even by my standards).

**2nd generation:**  
Slightly improved upon this generation of Nano-machines could now create simple structures out of single elements (see attached images of 'Diamond-Metal' Clipper Ships from before the Great Destruction). Also a safety feature was created that if the Nanomachines were exposed to a particular wavelength of light they would effectively 'die' hopefully preventing any more unpleasant accidents.

**3rd generation:**  
A general upgrade to all of the Nanomachines abilities this generation could work with and manipulate more than one element at a time and build fairly complex structures, such as the complete seamless superstructure of a ship. These units also finally gained the ability to self propagate a set number of times but remained relatively 'dumb' and incapable of complex coordination efforts. To Orb's knowledge it is believed that neither the PLANTs nor the Federation has functionally surpassed this generation though both sides are clearly making some advancements.

**4th generation:**  
This generation has three main advancements, first is the creation of bacteria factories, these factories are benign genetically engineered bacteria that exist in a primordial soup incubation fluid containing all the elements necessary for them to survive. This fluid also contains all the elements necessary to build complete Nanomachines, as a byproduct of the bacteria's feeding process they create Nanomachines at an exponential. These Nanomachines are then programmed with their particular tasks, but in a further improvement of their intelligence these Nanomachines also posses simple DNA based computers. The third notable advancement is that the 4th generation also had an enzyme based communication system; this combined with their improved intelligence meant they could perform far more complex activities at a much more productive rate. This would see Nanomachines able to build and operate in complex systems such as computers and even the human body so they could be used extensively for medical purposes. This, as you know, has seen Orb generating significant income from outsiders in need of cures from previously incurable conditions or health problems.

**5th generation:**

Once again the main advancements are in the Nanomachines ability to communicate and act intelligently; currently Orb is the only successful user of this generation. Rather than being controlled by a DNA based nano-computer the 5th generation are controlled by Molecular Quantum computers and thus have the ability to instantly communicate with any other member of the hive. These machines could act as one collective intelligent organism performing tasks far beyond their brethren, even possessing the ability to expand on their initial programming to operate more efficiently. It should be noted that the Nanomachines created by the Federation in Twinky's body are a bastardization of the 4th and 5th generations incorporating prototype traits of both. Obviously the idea of a control system for his symbiotic nanites is flawed because of the DNA based computer at the base of Twinky's occipital bone that appears to be a tumor like growth from his Medulla Oblongata. However this is a moot point considering that if the damage Twinky did to the Federations facilities is accurate then it is likely their progress in to these fields have been set back by at least a decade if not more.

**6th generation:**Technically this generation can no longer be completely classified as Nanomachines due to how its hives function and advancements in Femtotechnology. The hives/swarms now have an established "Queen" which acts as a commanding element/higher intelligence and is nearly the size of a human thumb and contains its own mini bacteria factory. Significantly smaller micro-machines roughly the size of ants collectively fulfill a similar role to the queen and are meant to rapidly transport the even smaller nano-machines and much larger chunks of material. The Nanomachines are virtually identical to the previous generation and fulfill the same functional role of individual elements but they also now carry on them the evener smaller Femtomachines. Femtomachines are molecular machines slaved to larger platforms such as Nanomachines and are the epitome of quantum technology. They are capable of literally editing the matter of any atom they encounter, all the way down to the individual protons, neutrons, quarks, and electrons that make up any given element. This is our current military use only generation and is the generation we have been using in regards to Kisaragi's Memory Metal Alloy experiments and the Human+ Project. The 6th are also being used by our servicemen and women who are willing to become so called "Symbions" like the original Shuurajou test subjects (Velshard Note: Asagi, Juri, and Mayura aka THE TRIFECTA OF TRIUMPH! or the walking talking 'blonde, bluenette, and red head joke'). I should note now that any attempts to replace a 5th generation Symbion's colony with a 6th generation could be potentially fatal since the two hives would have to fight for control over the host using the host's own body as their war zone.

**_REGARDING HUMAN KINE_**  
(Velshard Note: "kine" is Latin for herd animal aka sheeple/humans, this word is frequently used to describe humanity in texts supposedly influenced or written by demons.)

**Foreseers****:**  
Primarily Naturals like Mu La Flaga, Morgan Chevalier (see attached file), and myself seem to be of this type of genetic/psychic aberration, though considering that ZAFT commander Rau Le Creuset also has this aberration it is fairly safe to say that anyone, regardless of their genetic type, could also possess it. Thanks to Kisaragi and INGEN's research we currently define Foreseers as "individuals possessed of a preternatural degree of spatial awareness and possible psionic powers with leniencies toward empathic abilities". The empathic power is of course subjective since I have never experienced it myself, it has been postulated though that this is likely because I lack a 'connection' to other such Foreseers.

The enhanced spatial awareness or precognitive power however is most certainly real and rooted in modern neuroscience. This precognitive power seems to be partly physical and biological, noted by greatly increased activity in the sections of the cerebrum previously associated with the mapping and analysis of one's environment. From a psychological perspective those possessing this aberration seem to skip parts of the human brain's normal methodology of first analyzing, then conceptualizing, and finally rationalizing a stimulus before forming a response. Another interesting affect is that the mental buffers that normally regulate and limit our bodies function to prevent them from being damaged seem to possess certain gaps in regards to environmental information. To explain this simply when a Foreseer takes in their environment their subconscious mind skips the processes of conceptualization and rationalization, leaving only analysis, which significantly accelerates response time. Simultaneously the brain brings down the mental buffers slightly to fully absorb the information being presented by their body's senses without buffering out any of the background noise their conscious minds would ordinarily treat as irrelevant. This effectively turns one part of the brain into a so called "anticipation engine" where the brain simply operates as a computer that predicts the most probable occurrence in the immediate future. Considering that if the brain were to simply function as a purely biological computer for even a moment, it would have a processing power approaching 100 PetaFLOPS this is more than possible.

(Velshard Note: to put that in perspective the average human brain has a processing power more than 20,000,000 times greater than your home computer, which is in turn comparable to almost 70 times the power of IBM's Roadrunner supercomputer that occupies an area of 6,000 square feet, about the size of a small warehouse, compare that to your brain which probably weighs about 3lbs, pretty impressive what the old noodle designed by mother nature is capable of really)

As to where Foreseers power originates it is likely a form of physical adaptation, similar to the enlargement of human hearts in order to better deal with high altitude/low oxygen environments. This indicates this aberration is caused by multiple generations of people residing in the vastness of space which is an abyssal environment our minds and bodies didn't evolve to deal with. This is the most likely scenario since we can confirm the histories of families who have Foreseers in them and they indeed did spend most of their time in space at one point. This suggests that in the near future many more Foreseers will begin to pop-up, but it is unlikely they will begin to appear among the PLANTs population for reasons I'll later explain. It should be noted that some of the neurological occurrences documented under INGEN and Kisaragi's Foreseer research are very similar to those that occur during a SEED event, which I will expand on later as well.

The only consequence of a Foreseer's power, which is also subjective, is that each one tends to have one radically over emphasized personality trait, my own…'Obsessive' nature being one example. These can however be positive, negative, or neutral; a clear example of a negative case in my opinion is Morgan Chevalier's apparently Compulsive Oppositional Defiance Disorder. The man has one of the worst military track records I have ever seen for general disobedience and rebelliousness, if it wasn't for his impressive skills it is likely he would have been out of OMNI on his ass quite some time ago. In contrast I would say that Mu La Flaga is a clear positive example if a slightly unusual one, the man is perhaps the most open minded individual I have ever met and is in no way set in his thinking. Normally I would say this makes him a gullible, easily manipulated chump, but he also possesses a calculating intellect that is not distracted by past, popular, or personal biases. Shame he wasn't born in Orb considering he's easily one of the strongest Foreseers that we know of and isn't in the slightest bit morally corrupt.

**Coordinators****:**  
Coordinators as you know are created by altering the genome of an embryonic fetus using a retrovirus to replace certain parts of the human genome, this results in many relatively minor alterations to the fetus's physiology that compiled make a significantly superior individual.

The size of the nerves connected to sensory organs are increased slightly allowing greater and more complex amounts of information to reach the brain, this also means that they possess a better sense of balance as well. Alterations to the chemical makeup of the myelin sheath surrounding a coordinators nerves increases nerve conduction velocity from the normal 175 milliseconds to 110-90 milliseconds, further increasing response time and the brains processing power. The downside of these changes is that Coordinators are more sensitive to outside stimulus, making them more susceptible to devices like flash bangs. Their also abnormally vulnerable to being struck on pressure points due to their enlarged nerves, simply put they experience more pain than a Natural would.

The structure of the brain also changes slightly but this must be developed as the child grows by studying many different subjects causing a far greater level of interconnectivity between the neurons in the brain. This effectively allows a coordinators mind to operate far more efficiently at even higher speeds while being able to recall complex information easier as well.

Other physiological changes include a far more efficient and all together faster metabolism and more adaptive immune responses from the body, making Coordinators virtually immune to most illnesses. Another side effect of this increased metabolism is slightly elevated body temperature in comparison to naturals and an extraordinarily high tolerance for drugs, alcohol, and even various toxic agents. The only real downside that is still an up is that coordinators require roughly 50% more calories a day to operate normally, of course this also means that they naturally have very low percentages of body fat.

Further alterations also occur to their skeletons; changes in the bones composition slightly increase the overall load bearing capacity but also marginally increase their elasticity. This combined with thickened joint cartilage means they can more easily withstand impacts from significant heights, decreasing the probability of breaking a bone or damaging their motive capacity.

The last macro physiological change of note is a slight overall increase in muscle density, larger amounts of fast twitch muscle fibers, and stronger connective tissues. This means the overall physical strength of a Coordinator is also somewhat better but the key to a coordinator's speed is actually a significant increase in the fast-twitch muscle fibers. As opposed to slow-twitch muscle fibers which are high endurance, fast twitch muscle fibers are what humans rely on for sudden explosive bursts of power and speed at the cost that they can't be used long. This combined with the changes to their neurology is what makes coordinators in some cases more than twice to three times faster than a regular human at the cost that they can't keep up that speed for extended periods of time. Increases in strength to connective tissue has one main side effect, and that is an overall increase in the toughness of all of the bodies soft tissues making their bodies that much more resilient to injury.

Perhaps the most amazing quality to coordinator's is on the cellular level, during Mitosis as a cell divides itself into two daughter cells and the cell's DNA is being copied that DNA is being damaged or scarred slightly every time this occurs. After reaching physical maturity it is this process that causes humans to age and their bodies to degrade as each copy of a copy is more imperfect than the last. In a coordinator when mitosis occurs the daughter cells can be split into two types, one 'older' and one 'younger', the younger daughter cell is virtually perfect while the older daughter cell is slightly flawed. But soon after the first mitosis the older daughter cell undergoes a pseudo mitosis where it copies itself again but creates only one younger daughter cell while all of the old and flawed cellular tissue is shed. This factor combined with the Coordinators overall superior health means that they can conceivably live in excess of 200 years in age while looking younger as they get older than a Natural would.

Under optimal conditions this would produce a nigh-supernatural human being but as Ulen Hibiki's research proved the mother's body's effect on the fetus in gestation always makes the results much less fantastic. This holds especially true for first generation coordinators, unless the womb of the mother and the placenta's supply of vital nutrients to the fetus is perfect then it would never be possible to have the "Ultimate" Coordinator. Obviously if Simba (Kira) and Fairy's (Cassandra) abilities and Nala's (Cagalli) potential are any indicator then his artificial womb research was a massive success.

INGEN's research into coordinators has however yielded some even more interesting findings in regards to their procreation issues. As you know each successive generation of coordinators finds it more and more difficult to produce offspring except in the case that one of the parents is a natural in which case the chances of conception are much higher. By doing studies on willing Orb Coordinators they've discovered that the coordinators bodies are far more hostile to the eggs and sperm produced by the respective sexes. This would indicate that coordinators bodies are purposefully killing off the weaker potential offspring, literally only allowing the strongest to survive. This has been proven to be true during simple tests on 1st, 2nd, and 3rd generation, with the second and third generations performing better than the ones before them, the only exception to this rule seems to be children who developed in an artificial womb. Coordinators are in actuality becoming "Ultimate Coordinators" generation by generation and because of this are finding harder to reproduce because nature is likely compensating for superior offspring and much longer life expectancies. Of course at their current death rate due to war and terrorist acts the coordinator genome will go extinct if it only sticks to breeding with their own genetic type. We know that any child born of a Natural and Coordinator will always be a Coordinator because those genes are dominant but it is clear from this information that Coordinators as a whole will not be able to survive without naturals. At the same time however humanity will never be able to fully cope with living in the vastness of our universe without the strength Coordinators bring to us. An interesting conundrum that both sides of the extremists refuse to see, humanity has no future without Coordinators and those like them, and Coordinators have no hope to survive without the Naturals that gave rise to them.

**Symbions****:**  
A Symbion as we define it is any human, be they natural, coordinator, or otherwise who willingly accepts a symbiotic Nanomachine colony into their bodies for what will probably be the rest of their natural lives. Notable modern Symbions include Vulcan (Liene) and me but we both used 5th generation hives that operated on the simple principle that they must retain the host body's higher brain functions at all cost before attending to fixing any other injuries. In our cases due to cybernetic augmentation the results of this process are negligible except for a few standout abilities. In the cases of the first three volunteers for the Shuurajou project who were all implanted with 6th generation colonies the results were far more astonishing.

In almost every way imaginable except for mental prowess Symbions are vastly superior to even an "Ultimate Coordinator". This is simply because the Nano-machine colony can manipulate their hosts' body physically and genetically for optimum operation as much as they please so long as they don't violate their golden rule of maintaining the host's higher brain functions. This means that though the Nanomachines can improve the brain's overall function slightly they can't overly alter the host's brain chemistry or they would be 'damaging' the hosts mind. The exception to this of course is if the brain has already suffered previous damage or neural tissue scarring in which case the Nanomachines will repair that kind of damage.

Much of the physical changes are similar to those of Coordinators except far more extensive, similar to Coordinators the skeletons undergo a series of progressive changes in composition but they also undergo structural changes as well. The bones composition changes in to make itself a great deal stronger but the structure of the bone also changes at the microscopic level. Using nature's perfect shape, the Hexagon, the bones' inner lattice changes, now having a mixture of strong points for supporting much heavier weights and softer points that make the bones far less brittle and prone to fracturing. This is further augmented by organic monomolecular carbon fiber strands interweaving all throughout the bone allowing a Symbion to temporarily support a load of nearly one metric ton. The cranium has its own unique changes though it also possesses the same carbon fiber strands the bone of the skull is almost 4 times denser and harder than normal with weak points like the nasal having been significantly strengthened. Between the brain and the cranium their normally exists a cerebrospinal fluid that protects the brain and the spine from some shock trauma. The composition of the cerebrospinal fluid in Symbions has been altered to act like a shock sensitive Non-Newtonian organic fluid that upon impact absorbs, deflects, and dissipates kinetic energy around the brain. Altogether this geometrically reduces the chance of cerebral trauma and theoretically enables a Symbion to survive being shot in the head by anything below a 10.56mm AP round. Also of interest is that the overall skeletal structure has changed slightly to best accommodate their bodies' muscles and attachment points for far greater mobility and flexibility. The rib cage and collar bones have been especially strengthened as well with the gaps between the rib bones having been reduced a great deal decreasing the chances of an object puncturing their torsos.

Muscle tissue however has nearly tripled in density with a near 500% increase in fast twitch muscle fiber combined this with the Nanomachines ability to rapidly oxygenate and remove lactic acid from the muscles and the athletic results are staggering. I've personally witnessed Symbions leaping over 5 times their body height from a standing start to the roof of a two story building with relative ease. Accelerating from 0 to a top speed of over 55kmh in less than a second and sustaining that speed for nearly an hour before collapsing. I've even witnessed one of the young women bench pressing 280kg of weight, which I would have estimated to be more than six times her own body weight.

This is compounded by greatly strengthened connective tissues similar in nature to the protein fibers that compose spider's silk, which has tensile strength superior to steel but is much tougher and highly resistant to being cut. This "BioSteel Polymer" exists in very high concentrations around all of the bodies' arteries, veins, and major nerves along with special fat deposits that seem to be meant to absorb impact. This makes Symbions skin extremely tough to the point that it can easily stop small fragments of shrapnel and very small caliber bullets.

Similar to Coordinators composition changes to the nerves' myelin sheaths brings their nerve conduction velocity to under 70 milliseconds, nearly 30% faster than some of the best coordinators and 2.5 times faster than a natural. However this is a moot point due to some design changes caused by the host's tenants distributed throughout the Symbions bodies, usually located inside their skeletons, are primitive micro brains. These brains are really just marginally complex clusters of nerve tissue at certain pressure points that contain high concentrations of Nanomachines. Because of 6th generation Nanomachines ability to use quantum communications they actually act as a Symbion's nervous system most of the time sending and receiving information directly from and to the brain as fast as an optical computing system. This effectively means that even if a Symbion were to have their spinal cord damaged or severed they would still be able to move and function almost as though nothing had happened. Rather disturbingly this would also mean that a severed limb could still be controlled remotely to some degree by the original owner for a time.

Even more impressive is the enhancements to their sensory organs, starting with the eyes, on average humans have 20:20 vision, meaning that an object at twenty feet away looks to be 20 feet away. In the case of coordinators their vision is almost 4 times better, when they focus on objects at twenty feet they can examine them as though they were little more than arm's distance away. A Symbion's vision is roughly 100:2, meaning that when they focus on an object at a hundred feet it appears to be no more than two feet in front of their face. Thanks to enlarged optic nerves coordinators tend to see the world at a frame rate almost quadruple that of a natural (30 frames a second), somewhere between 100-120 frames a second. Symbions trump this at approximately 225 frames a second and during times of extreme stress the Nanomachines clustered in their eyes will bypass the normal nerve transmission rate to bring their perception up to nearly 2000 frames a second. At a far enough distance this is fast enough for a Symbion to literally see and dodge bullets from most conventional assault weapons. The Nanomachines have even caused further alterations to their host's eyes, exponentially increasing the number and density of light and color sensing cones and rods in their eyes as well as a structure very similar to a feline's tapetum, the reflective lens for absorbing more light. This means Symbions can see across a much wider spectrum of light in more detail, even seeing into the infrared and ultraviolet spectrums, while having flawless night vision, capable of seeing in pure darkness as though it were the middle of the day. This makes Symbions eyes rather intimidating to look at due to the oddly colored light reflections especially in dark environments. The final oddity to their eyes is the development of a clear nictating lens that slides over the eye like an eyelid and helps them to see underwater as well as functioning to clean debris from their eyes.

Their auditory ability has been almost equally enhanced capable of literally hearing a pin drop on a blade of grass a hundred yards away and hearing across a far greater range of frequencies, they are even capable of picking up infrasonic sounds. Taste and smell are similarly enhanced as well though this is mostly because of Nanomachines in their sinuses and tongues that actually function as additional taste and smell receptors. Due to a subconscious link with their bodies Nanomachines this means they can actually determine the chemical composition of anything they taste or smell in the air. This is partly very useful for detecting toxins in the environment or food/drinking water but it also means that Symbions are to a degree human Bloodhounds, though still nowhere near as effective or sensitive as the olfactory prowess of a canine. The sense of touch and temperature sensitivity is also amazingly enhanced, with individuals displaying the ability to actually count individual fibers in the finest silk and estimate the temperatures of objects their not even touching to within .2 degrees. This is especially useful for espionage purposes because a Symbion can actually read micro script just by touching it, giving whole new methods to passing information.

For safety reasons Symbion's Nanomachines buffer and control sensory input to a degree to prevent them from suddenly being overwhelmed by powerful sensory input, unlike a coordinator who can easily be over stimulated by their senses.

Augmenting all of this is the abilities exclusively gifted to them by their Nanomachine colonies, first is their ability to remotely link with any computer system via a biological Wi-Fi. They can also link to any system through physical contact alone, this ability can also be applied in another way, and it allows Symbions to hold conversations with each other without ever saying a word and does so at the speed of thought while being in separate rooms. This makes them quite dangerous as pilots, computer technicians, and hackers for breaking through security systems and acting in Black ops missions. Perhaps what is truly awe inspiring is their capacity for healing and personal survival, their ability to recover from injury is outstanding but it is what they can potentially survive that makes them even more frightening. Symbions can heal cuts and lacerations in seconds, broken bones and severe tissue trauma in minutes, neurological damage in a few hours, and reattach severed appendages like it was nothing. They can conceivably survive incredible injuries, falling from a 20 story building, suffering a full body burn from being hit with napalm, and literally being turned into a bullet hole ridden target dummy. Most disturbing of all is that it is fully possible they could survive being literally blown up and even being decapitated, so long as the brain's higher functions were still recoverable the Nanomachines could fully repair their host's bodies without a single scar. It is also possible for them to be frozen alive and completely recover for two primary reasons, first is that as their host begins to go hypothermic the Nanomachines begin produce complex glycerin sugars that act as a natural anti-freeze agent, preventing ice crystals from forming in their bodies and damaging cells. If a Symbion is frozen their body functions do completely cease but they don't die, as soon as they begin to thaw the Nanomachines in their bodies immediately go to work to bring their core body temperature up by hyper stimulating muscle tissue. And as they thaw the complex sugars would be rapidly metabolized to bring up their energy levels and kick start their cognitive functions as though nothing had happened. Just as impressive is how long they can survive without air; a Symbion can actually remain submerged underwater indefinitely, using the Nanomachines in their skin to breath oxygen molecules out of the water like a fishes' gills. They could even survive in vacuum for an indeterminable period of time by recycling the Oxygen inside their own bodies at the cost of sacrificing other tissues.

In short a Symbion is faster, stronger, and more durable than any coordinator could ever hope to be but are still limited by one factor. Their minds. A natural who becomes a Symbion will always be inferior intellectually to a coordinator because of how their brains function, at the same time a coordinator Symbion is just that much more dangerous than all of his or her brothers and sisters.

**_IN REGARDS TO SUPERIOR EVOLUTIONARY ELEMENT DESTINED FACTOR_**

As I explained during the section regarding Foreseers the SEED factor seems to be related to the precognitive powers some individuals, mostly naturals, possess due to what we know of how it operates. SEED is likely triggered as a result of stress in individuals who are inordinately gifted intellectually most especially among humans who have undergone some form of artificial genetic tampering during the prenatal stage of their development. It is hypothesized that SEED and Precognition are two sides of the same coin but appear depending on the genetic type, intelligence, and history of the individual, though we have one rather well know "red herring" by the name of Rau Le Creuset who seems to contradict this theory. That aside we do understand how SEED actually operates, which just so happens to be like it's twin power Precognition, as I explained previously when the brain is presented with a stimulus it goes through a series of processes before formulating a response. This occurs as follows; Input stimulus, Brain Analyzes stimulus objectively, Brain Conceptualizes the analyzed material personally, Brain rationalizes an appropriate response based on preconceived bias, Output Reaction. This is the normal instant by instant operation of any human mind where the processes are performed with some assistance from the subconscious. Precognitive power keeps both the Conscious and Subconscious mind partitioned from each other allowing the subconscious to do all of the work but allowing it to communicate with the conscious mind so that it remains safe from mental overload and resultant psychological instabilities. SEED pretty much does the opposite, when the mental trigger is set off a SEED user's OS, for lack of a better term, changes from human normal to what is essentially nothing more than an emotionless biological computer. When SEED activates the normal cognitive processes get chopped down to one instead of three; Input stimulus, Brain Analyzes stimulus objectively, Output Reaction. The conscious mind is also completely subverted by the subconscious mind, leaving the subconscious as the one running the show, which causes all of the ordinary mental buffers that limit the amount of information the brain receives from outside stimulus to disappear. In this state the mind operates purely on factual information and is essentially nothing more than a machine obeying the desires of the conscious mind before it shut down when SEED was activated. This results in an exponential increase in the users abilities both physically and mentally that makes them extremely lethal but unlike Precognition, which is arguably weaker, SEED comes at a progressively heftier price. The more a SEED user applies their ability the stronger it becomes but INGEN and Kisaragi has found that the long term consequences of this are quite severe, because the mind and body simply wasn't meant to operate in such a way. Every use of SEED gradually damages both the users' body, which will likely recover, but their psyche as well, which obviously isn't so easily repaired. As much as I hate to use Simba as an example, he has shown earmarks of a relatively slow but definitive decline in his mental health as have the few other SEED users that we've documented. If SEED was a gift its user very rarely employed throughout their life then it would likely be safe but in comparison to Foreseers who keep their conscious minds safely partitioned off from their powers it is very much the Sword of Damocles for its own wielder.

**ADDENDUM (2/19/71): **It has recently come to my attention that Erica Simmons, the head of Project Shuurajou, has discovered a possible...'trigger' for both the 'Foreseer' and 'SEED' conditions, this 'trigger' being a small but energetic particle, distributed throughout the Earth Sphere, if not the Solar System. Apparently, it produces a strange radiation that is continuously mutating humans in a unique manner. Beyond this, little can be determined as each individual particle possesses the ability to inhibit conventional scanning and detection methods and is apparently practically a form of neutrino. Simmons has noted that this particle is concentrated in space, particularly in the regions where we discovered the 'Diamond-Metal' ships, as well as the sector of the Debris Belt colloquially identified as 'Celestial Space'.

_/END FILE/  
/A.I. OVERWATCH PROTOCOL (INTEGRITY)/  
/BEGINNING DATA SHREDDING OF FILE/  
/COMPLETE/  
/TERMINATING LINK WITH PRIMARY SERVER/  
/COMPLETE/_

- The Author -

Well, a little more backstory sown.

("And lord knows what you idiots will reap")

Oh shut up, before I ask Velshard to blast you with whatever he can think of.

("Hah! I'm not afraid of anything that ba-")

Alternatively, I could get him to feed you to the nano-swarms. 1st-generation won't do, that does only carbon-base, but I think 2nd-gen ones could do quite a bit with all that titanium in your frame.

Review Replies:

Jman12394: Yep.  
At the end of Chaotic Cosmos, Jack would win no matter. Frost as he is now, in the Reclamation War...yeah...then things get muddled.  
Alternatively, one to run screaming for life and sanity from.  
Dong so.

Alex Yamato: "Interesting" I laugh at that term.  
I suppose I could come up with a few more romance-heavy scenes...  
At least the EA Grunts will die in interesting ways. For us.

Kojiro Kun: That is kind of the point.

Mathiasosx: OTT?  
Sorry about that, I'll get right on it.

Knightmare Gundam of Ni


	54. Omake: Decepticons get Screwed

Gundam Seed: Killer's Realm

Omake: Decepticons got Screwed

**Earth, Northeastern Africa  
January 30, 71 CE  
12:21 PM Local Time**

Optimus stared, aghast, at the strange machine before him. It was humanoid, like the Transformers themselves in their non-vehicle forms, but it towered eight meters over him, for a total of eighteen!

The machine was black from head to toe, with piercing golden optics and a head design strangely not unlike that of Optimus'. It's back sported long angular wings, and sections of its legs flared slightly outwards. The blade the mech held against his face was just as black as its owner, except for a pinkish-red plasma strip that constantly cycled along the blade, and as long as Optimus was tall. On its other limb, the mech sported an equally large wedge-shaped shield, with twin barrels on the underside and a sharp, silvery edge.

Off to the side, Optimus witnessed further action by the Decepticons.

A Brawl-baseform roared, bringing its cannon about to fire at the silvery machine, which ran straight into the blast, the shell only stopping its run for a moment before the machine almost eagerly leaped up and forward, blue-white plasma flaring from the thrusters ensconced in its back and legs. The machine dropped down onto the Brawl, a foot smashing into the war-loving Decepticon's shoulder and crushing the frame down, before a clawed appendage sliced down and into the Brawl's torso, ultra-keen claws cutting all the way through to its back. By luck or design, Brawl's Spark was left intact, as the machine stepped off of its shoulder and lifted Brawl until it was level with the silver machine's optics. And was summarily torn apart in an instant, the machine's other claws tearing into Brawl's waist and slicing outwards until its legs fell, as the claws embedded in Brawl's chest closed and crushed its Spark.

Off to the side, a pair of Protoform Decepticons, sealed before they could acquire their vehicle forms, jerked suddenly as gold-hot blades stabbed through them, slicing through layers of alloys that had managed to protect generations of Transformers from lesser bladed weapons. as they fell, a black machine similar to many of the others appeared, before flickering back into invisibility.

Behind the machine that currently arrested Optimus' attention was a primarily dark gray, rusty red and white machine with an excessive amount of heavy armaments, firing volleys of ordnance into the crowd of Decepticons and 'enemy' machines, mechanical limbs and liquid energon flying everywhere as explosions from both the dark gray machine's munitions and the explosions of the white enemy machines erupted again and again. A group of Constructicons were practically vaporized when the artillery machine targeted them and fired a rocket from an exceedingly large launcher clutched in what looked like a secondary arm attached to its hip!

At this point, some of the Decepticons were taking to the air, the jet ones lifting up on clouds of exhaust as the helicopters shifted into their aircraft form after leaping into the air. They died almost instantly, a white and silver machine flying above firing missiles from hip-based missiles at them before they could get much in the way of velocity. This machine was notably different from both the ones Optimus was close to and the ones the Decepticons startled, especially in the head, with two cameras that moved around the head and a visage that reminded Optimus of the raptors he had seen in his time on Earth.

More Decepticons perished, the white aerial machine firing actual beams of cohesive plasma and a blue machine darting forth with a wide sword made completely of plasma in hand, hacking apart any Decepticon or enemy machine that came into its path.

By now, the opposing sides were in complete disarray, some of the Decepticons actually unnerved enough to try and dig back under the sand, while the enemy machines were attempting to retreat.

Megatron had now recovered from the crunching kick the black machine had given him, slowly and almost painfully crawling back up to his feet. It was apparent he was having some trouble moving his torso around, and Optimus really didn't think he'd be able to transform with his armor all mashed together like that.

Then Megatron roared, raising his right arm, the limb shifting into a configuration any Transformer knew all to well, some from horrible first experience.

The Fusion Cannon.

The most as yet most powerful weapon any Transformer could have, the Fusion Cannon could annihilate anything with a good direct hit. It required a few seconds to charge as it gathered surrounding gases and compressed and heated them until fusion was achieved, at which point the ball of superheated plasma was shot out of the cannon at a good size of the speed of light.

"You must run." Optimus pleaded with the machine before him. "Megatron is charging his cannon! It-" The machine withdrew its sword and smashed Optimus aside with its shield, before holding the barrier between it and Megatron

Who then fired, the golden bolt of energy and plasma blasting apart the air to reach its target. And when it did...The heat and radiation from the impact forced Optimus' optics to temporarily off-line for safety. And when they came back on...

The black machine stood there, its shield none the worse for the experience it just went through. Then, the machine simply raised its right arm, so that a structure on its forearm aimed directly at the leader of the Deceptions.

A flurry of plasma beams shot the Fusion Cannon to pieces, smoldering, melting fragments of Cybertronian alloys dropping to the hot sand below before the rest of Megatron's arm followed, with the dark Transformer gaping in mixed horror and awe.

Then the machine leaped forth, beam-saw sword slicing through Megatron at the waist as it's wielder came to a stop assisted by the thrusters in its wings and legs, the machine pivoting about to slice at Megatron twice, thrice, four times more. The flurry of swipes continued until Megatron fell to the ground in five pieces that were barely capable of recognition as his parts.

Optimus had once seen Megatron dead, and indeed had died himself, both of them only to be resurrected by the power of the AllSpark and the Matrix of Leadership, respectively. But they had been mostly whole, Megatron being slain by the AllSpark and Optimus 'merely' with a large hole in his chest.

There really wasn't much you could do for a 'bot that had been sliced into several pieces.

- The Author -

Continued from the Transformer's Omake in Chapter 19.

I really don't get why people were angry about us humans having a bigger role in the movies than in the older shows. I mean, you'd think that being shown us solidly trouncing several Decepticons with minimal aid from the Autobots would be good, right? Especially given the premise of the movie Skyline, which uses one of Stephen Hawking's premises as its inspiration (If you're curious, go look up 'Stephen Hawking Aliens'.) To sum it up here, humanity are Native Americans, and Aliens are the Europeans.

I only truly got started with Transformers in the middle of the Beast Wars era. That was awesome. I mean, Megatron transformed into a freaking _T-Rex_. And later on, a OMFG _DRAGON_. And both of them could spit _fire_. I think Megatron is one of my favorite characters in the series. Except for the one that transformed into a Luger (That was weird. Seriously. He has a _Fusion Cannon_ attached to his arm, and he transforms into a WWII pistol?)

Speaking of the Fusion Cannon, my depiction of it here is mainly based off of my impressions of it during the Transformer's Revenge of the Fallen video game (PS3). I had a lot of fun with that thing. I one-shotted many Bumblebees from halfway across the map.

("Dude, you're rambling.")

Hmm...so I am.

Review Replies (Wow, either my readership is dropping or people don't review anymore):

Alex Yamato: Velshard does some good tech.  
I believe that was pretty much what the Seed people were going for, basically Newtypes, only they're not as big of a deal as the whole Coordinator angle.  
Up to a point. A very limited one.  
Gimme a break, I just reached the age where I can buy certain games without parental supervision.  
I'm looking forward to writing them. It's a work in progress, but both me and Velshard have big plans for it.

Kojiro Kun: wait until I hit everyone with the real plots involving this info. That's going to be a doozy.

Mathiasosx: I took me a few reading sessions to absorb it, so I don't blame you.  
Here you are!

Knightmare Gundam of Ni


	55. PseudoPhase: The Battle of Panama

Gundam Seed: Killer's Realm

Pseudo-Phase: The Battle of Panama

**Panama  
April 16, 71 CE  
9:21 AM**

- The Enforcers -

Every soldier stationed on the South American coastline gulped in fear when the first burning streaks appeared in high atmosphere. With the 3rd Orbital Fleet summarily destroyed, and Halberton's 8th Fleet unresponsive for some reason, the entire western hemisphere was open to an assault from ZAFT. And they weren't ones to waste such a chance, as they proved now.

Despite, or perhaps because of their defeat at JOSH-A, ZAFT's soldiers were furious. Never had such a singular loss devastated their forces...but now they could make the Naturals pay!

The first blows in the Battle of Panama came with off-shore SAM cruisers launching flights of missiles at the descending drop pods, a good number missing due to the hot chaff from the disintegrating hull, but nevertheless destroying quite a few before their payloads came out. When the mobile suits did emerge from their shells though, the tide changed drastically.

SCAUs armed with beam rifles, ZONGS and ZAMS armed with heavy missile launchers and ion sniper rifles fired through the air, specifically targeting the SAM units on the cruisers, and more often than not sinking the ships from the holes that were blasted straight through the hull by the exploding munitions. Even before they landed, the suits were already firing on the rest of the defenders with all manner of weapons.

Most of the defenders at this point were about three companies of combined-arms forces, consisting of main battle tanks, SAM trucks, and infantry, along with several bunker installations and a few shoreline artillery batteries. Not something to even concern a mobile suit beyond a stomp usually, in these numbers they were slightly worrying.  
Of course, one has to take into account the numbers of ZAFT troops dropping in. Well over one hundred fifty teams with four to seven mobile suits each were falling over the Panama Mass Driver Base, almost a thousand humanoid war machines each with enough firepower to destroy a warship.

Many ZAMS and ZONGS of the invading force were damaged, ranging from 'scuffed by a bullet' to 'bisected by a missile', but the majority landed in the middle of the defense forces, in some cases on top of them.

Things just got a lot worse for the Alliance.

- A Cosmonaut -

"Get yer goddamn asses moving, you lackluster idiots!"

The shout chased Ensign Bruce Gideran down the hanger hall, causing him to pick up his feet and really sprint to his Constantine, muttering under his breath all the time.

"Goddamn space monsters, had to attack while I was stationed here, no, they couldn't wait until the Orb attack got finished so I could get transferred..." and so on, even as the bunker/hanger shook with the numerous thuds of mobile suits landing. With ease of practice, Gideran climbed the ladder up to the catwalk and slipped into the cockpit. His Constantine, equipped with a Vanguard defense pack, had a large Anti-Beam Tower Shield on its left arm, two turreted Igellstellung CIWS guns attached to its shoulders, and a anti-armor flechette shotgun. A newer addition were a revamped version of the Armor Schneider Knives that were included in the preliminary designs for the G-Units. Built out of high-density titanium boride with edges sharpened to monomolecular keenness by precise lasers, they were guaranteed penetration of up to a solid two meters of standard warship plating, much less the much thinner mobile suit armor. Either knife was stored in thigh sheaths.

Strapping into the command chair, Gideran activated the start-up process, the Constantine humming to life as it drew power from the base's reactor. Gideran grinned to himself as the power cables detached and the rest of the Vanguard pack's backpack unit attached. Walking forward, he stepped in front of the hanger doors...

And came face-to-face with a Scowler, the twin mono-eye systems staring his Constantine in the face.

Pure luck dictated the Ensign's survival, an instinctive jerk felling his Constantine just as the SCAU fired its beam rifle, piercing the rest of his team through the torsos. A reflexive trigger-pull fired the shotgun's payload point-blank into the SCAU's cockpit block. For a few seconds, Gideran sat there, panting. Then he got back up and moved forward, not looking back into the devastation the hanger suffered.

- The Spacenoids -

Gravity was a strange feeling to Hughs. It was like some kind of...oppressive weight on his body. Sure, there had been spin-simulated gravity on the PLANTS, but that had been really light on him.

It was a good thing he'd trained in the simulators for it, or it would have thrown him off.

A few tanks were frantically backing up away from his SCAU, firing a volley of shells at him. With barely a glance in their direction, he brought the shield on his suit's left arm up, crouching the SCAU slightly to absorb the impact of the explosions before raking them with the torso-mounted machine cannons, armor-piercing sabot rounds drilling into the dirt, trees and tanks to send bits of flying everywhere.

That done, Hughs walked the SCAU over the smoking wrecks towards where the rest of his team had landed. The ZONGS and four ZAMS were waiting patiently for their commander, crouched among the ruins of a bunker and what looked like a squadron of APCs and their infantry around them.

"Yo boss, how's it been?" Darrin, the ZONGS pilot radioed. Not the best rifleman, but good with guided ordnance, the reason why most of his ZONGS' hardpoints were taken up by small missile launchers. The ZAMS were piloted by the Huang Quadruplets, a semi-famous set of siblings known for their impeccable teamwork, and a disturbing tendency to dress in each others clothes. All had a standard assault rifle and a few racks of hand grenades.

"Short, uneventful." Was Hughs' short reply. "Form up, we're moving to Point Gamma-Two." The Hughs Team formed up, Darrin taking point and Hughs in the back while two of the Quadruplets (an extremely rare occurance in the Coordinator population of the PLANTS) flanked Darrin's ZONGS with the other two accompanying Hugh.

As one of the vanguard teams, they were to clear the landing zones for the Gungnir bombs, while the teams behind them secured the taken ground.

For the most part, things were easy. Going into the South American jungle meant there were no tanks, or any heavy armor at all. Most of what they encountered before reaching Point Gamma-Two were small infantry patrols scampering back to their outpost.

So, it was with a little relief when the team finally reached their objective. Gamma-Two was a section of forest cleared to provide room for a large SAM base with accompanying bunker defenses and garrison. In other words, a perfect landing site for an orbital insertion, just so long as the SAM launchers were inoperative.

"Team, target the bunkers and garrison, I'll take care of the SAMs. Watch out for mobile suits. Their pilots should be getting here by now-" As if summoned, Constantines equipped with atmospheric flight packs and linear assault rifles came down from above like avenging angels. One of the Quadruplet's ZAMS was peppered on the right side from _all _of the rifles, armor shredded into scraps and superstructure broken into pieces.

This merited an especially violent response, suitably taken care of by Darrin, firing what amounted to about a quarter of his total ordnance of missiles at the aerial Constantines, all fitted with plasma warheads. This resulted in a rather pleasant, heated aurora of blue and green and exploding mobile suits. There was one survivor that managed to survive long enough to fall to the ground before Hughs moved forward, drew the sword his SCAU carried and cleanly stabbed it through the cockpit.

"Gannel, let Orik ride double with you." He ordered. "Plan remains the same."

Disposal of the outpost proceeded quite smoothly, with a few hand-tossed grenades from the ZAMS taking good care of the bunkers, and a single beam from the SCAU's rifle setting off the missile warheads.

"Orbital Command, this is Commander Hughs. Point Gamma-Two is clear and ready to receive payload."

"Roger Hughs, sending package now." Like the start of the battle, orange-yellow streaks of reentry friction practically glowed in the sky, even in the daylight, marking the descent of the Gungnirs.

The one for Gamma-Two slammed down into the soil with enough force to almost topple Darrin's ZONGS. Without hesitation, Hughs moved his SCAU towards the Gungnir, transmitting a code signal on the command frequency. A port on the side of the bomb popped open, just the right size and shape for the weapons port on the SCAU's manipulator, with Hughs plugging into it.

A screen popped up on his HUD, querying him for serial number and passcode. The commander punched the characters in, and was gratified to see the green [COMMAND ACCEPTED] flash onscreen. It was with a smirk he withdrew his suit from the Gungnir, as a low humming signaled the start of the process.

Within the Gungnir, a series of capacitors dumped their energy stores into a miniaturized particle accelerator, activating it. This accelerator did as it's name would state, accelerating a group of particles, electrons in this case, to near-luminal speeds. The ridiculous acceleration of the electrons, induced by the high voltage supplied to the accelerator, had an interesting effect when the stream was redirected through an anode and several aluminum-based filters. Due to an effect called Bremsstrahlung, translated as 'breaking radiation', when the super-accelerated electrons were stopped by the aluminum's nuclei, the end result of this is gamma rays, perhaps the most energetic wavelength of light. The end of the target tube was made of a series of reflecting and refracting crystals, redirecting the gamma rays and effectively storing it. Within a second, the amount of gamma rays produced equaled that of a nuclear fission device initiated in high-earth orbit.  
After another second, the input threshold was reached, and a section of the gamma ray container removed itself, with the rays being directed out that hole and into an escalating series of such devices, until the radiation was spread equivalently through out the surface of the Gungnir, and then discharged into the immediate atmosphere.

A crackling, luminous blue field of electricity arced out into the area, combining with others to envelop the entire coastline.

- A Cosmonaut -

Ensign Gideran tugged furiously on his control sticks, trying to get his Constantine to move. He slammed his fingers on countless buttons, flipped switches, even bashed his fist into the console to try and get the damn thing's screens to reboot and let him know what was going on.

Nothing started up. There wasn't even a flicker in the viewscreens or the radar.

"What the hell is the p-" Point of building mobile suits if the damn things broke down every other engagement, was what Gideran would have said, if a sword didn't slice through his forward screens and decapitate him.

- The Space Monster -

Patrick Zala observed the camera feed as the Constantine toppled, the SCAU's gleaming, now-bloodied blade sliding smoothly out of the invisible cut. A slight tug at the corner of his mouth was the closest he'd come to a grin since the start of this damn war. The Earth Alliance was cut off from space now. A digital map on a screen to the right of the one showing the SCAU's video feed showed the Panamanian coastline, covered by an enormous blob that signified the Gungnir's EMP coverage.

_Stupid monkeys didn't even properly shield their mobile suits._ Zala thought, leaning back as the other screens on his desk lit up with further video feeds, his office computer tapping into the Command Network to receive them.

An actual, pleased grin spread across his face as the views showed the summary executions of the Naturals, his soldiers serving them just the same amount of mercy the Blue Cosmos bastards would have shown them. The mercy of the bullet.

- The Author -

Short battle. No matter how you look at it, Panama was a curb-stomp. There's just simply no way for OMNI to win here. They have no knowledge of the Gungnir EMPs, since they only know how to make EMPs with nukes (rather stupid, since even now there are ways to produce Non-Nuclear EMPs). And wow, my Zala's going nuts earlier.

("Bah, you just can't write characterization.")

Eh, probably true.

("And what happened to that Flay chick and her dad!")

You hush now. I have plans, plans you see, heeheehehehee!

("You've now passed my creep level. Congratulations.")

Please shut up. I still have a head-ache from writing the Gungnir activation.

("Goes to show that you shouldn't write high technology segments without a good night's rest beforehand.")

Review Replies:

Alex Yamato: Yep.  
No Lemons. The closest I get may be a very intimate kiss scene, if I can get the nerve to write it.

Kojiro Kun: Behold, the Battle of Panama...

Knightmare Gundam of Ni


	56. PseudoPhase: Blessed are the Gunmakers

Gundam Seed: Killer's Realm

Pseudo-Phase: Blessed Are The Gunmakers

**Orb, Zenopolis City, Huynh Industries Global HQ  
April 18, 71 CE**

"Aw, man, it's soooo nice to be back." Drake groaned, slumping into the office chair. He stroked the remarkably realistic faux leather with appreciation, glad to be rid of that confining suit and that horrid gas mask.

"Indeed." His twin replied smoothly, browsing through the company's latest financial reports. "The PMC division has suffered in your absence. Inoue and the others in the Military and Mobile Weapons divisions have been distraught over your absence. It would do them some good to see you back there, working. rather than slacking off again."

"Pfft. Good job, trying to get a rise out of me. I intend to spend these last few days of 'peace' relaxing, as is my reward for having to act like a stuck-up version of _you_."

"You could very well relax on the Ame-no-Mihashira with your divisions. Safe from all the combat, from the explosions, the flying linear-accelerated shells, the super-heated plasma beams...which would be perfectly satisfying for a normal person. I assume you've already selected your Waijin?"

"Of course."

"Very well." The twins glanced at each other from their respective positions, Jake from behind his desk and over the top of a stack of reports, Drake from his position leaned back onto the wall, feet stacked on the desk. Both sets of eyes, just as startlingly purple as Kira's, gleamed maliciously.

**Huynh Industries HQ Hanger, 5,000 M below sea level  
Later**

The elevator door slid open smoothly, permitting the Huynh twins to move forth into the spacious area. Not even a tenth as vast as the hangers that held Orbs assortment of Tetsujin mobile suits, but more than big enough for the weapons stored there. They moved towards the line of consoles, running independent of any other computer system, set up in front of the unit.

Standing before them was the mobile suit equivalent of a dwarf. To give a brief, and somewhat general description, the unit looked like a Tetsujin scrunched down to maybe two-thirds its original height, about twelve and a half meters, if that.

It had the same physical build as the Tetsujins, raptor-legs included. It's coloring was a very dark purple color that would be indistinguishable from black in shadows and darkness, with tracings of gold around the scarlet-red cameras, along the thruster nacelles protruding from either side of the backpack, and edging the small claws topping each finger and toe.

The head was most definitely different from the Tetsujins. A short serpentine wedge, the middle of it was interrupted by a mono-camera eye system, while either side plane held a powerful Gundam-type camera. Above each eye protruded an antennae that angled up from the head before sweeping backwards. A zig-zag line cut across the head horizontally, edged with pure black, and cutting the upper two-thirds off from the remainder. The chin housed a small crystalline sensor.

On either hip, a metal holster held a comparatively enormous handgun, the barrel itself two and a half meters long, and about fifty centimeters wide if not more. The bottom of the barrel hosted a large bayonet-like piece of metal. Two beam saber hilts peeked out from their charging ports on the back, under the armpits. On the shoulders were four small turrets, two with long multiple barrels, and the others short and ending in a lens; one of each type per shoulder. Attached to a NAMA point on the shoulder was a rifle almost as long as the suit was tall, with a large cylindrical attachment at the end of the barrel taking up a full third of the length.

Slim ports in the shoulder-blades showed small micro-missile launchers, and long flanges parallels to the knee and elbow armor were beam-blade emitters. Along the spine were at least a dozen short and moderately thick cylinders that stuck out from the back by a miniscule degree.

"Nice isn't it?" Drake said, grinning, a far cry from his displayed personality as the Blue Cosmos' pet Coordinator.

"Probably your best MS design yet." Jake allowed, moving along to see the suit from different angles. "Stealth paint?"

"Phase-Shifted Jaumann design incorporating hyper-absorbent Micro-Crystal Colloid."

"Armor?"

"The Gundanite Hyper-Alloy Superlattice of course, with interdicting micro-meter Phase Shift layers, and an underlying reflective nano-crystal ablative armor."

"Sensors?"

"Antennae-based radar, ECM, ECCM, and chin-based LA/IDAR and laser designator, foot-based seismic/sonar systems. Multi-wavelength camera lenses and a super-telescoping omni-spectrum mono-camera. Access to OMNI, ZAFT, and Orb Geosynchronous Satellite Surveillance Systems."

"Hmm...Very good." Jake nodded, completing his circuit around the Mobile Suit, Drake's customized Waijin, the Hachujin.

"And yours?" Drake queried, nodding at the other side of the hanger.

There, a Waijin with the exact same body type as the Hachujin stood. Slightly taller at almost thirteen meters, this was painted a deep black, with gold-tinged platinum edging the knee, elbow, shoulder, and backpack.

The head was, instead of the ninja-style of the Tetsujin or the Hachujin's wedge, a pure Samurai-like Gundam head, with all-encompassing royal purple crystals for cameras. Two recessed ports with barrels protruding fifteen centimeters out were placed on the brow, flanked by similar ports outfitted with bright violet lenses. The standard V-fin was warped with a third arm jutting out directly from the forehead and the other two angling towards, and then later out from the head, conforming to the points of a tricorne hat and looking like the silhouette of a malformed trident when viewed from the front. At the center of the sensory array was a large golden gem-like camera. The spine hosted an array of small antennae, based on ball joints that allowed them a wide range of motion.

Adhered to the right shoulder was a long naginata-style weapon, the blade equipped with small protrusions on the tip and base that indicated it to be a beam-edged weapon. The other shoulder hosted an arm to which was attached a tower-shield, large and wide enough to completely cover the Waijin suit from a single angle. Small notches about two-thirds down its length, separating a wedge-shaped section colored blood-red from the rest of the uniform black shield. The same beam sabers on the Hachujin peeked out from under its armpits.

The shoulder-blades practically sagged under the weight of two heavy weapons turrets, each one occupied with a different type. The left one was large and boxy, with six separate barrels, while the other had a standard rifle-like setup with an elongated barrel. Either arm hosted a Gatling cannon jutting out just above the wrist, and the ring fingers of each hand ended in an elongated, claw-like emitter.

"Enhanced sensory jamming and interception capability." Jake extolled. "Extended-range C3 systems, semi-automated active defenses, Tri-Camera electro-optical system, beam-absorbent energy charging system, and Colloidal anti-beam mist dispensers."

"Damn good." Drake commented, admiring Jake's Majin.

"The others have received their Waijin. They're gathering in Moon-Earth Lagrange 2, and awaiting us." Jake said, striding back to the consoles. "Are you ready for this? We'll be fighting in Zenopolis. You haven't fought in urban conditions since-"

"Yeah, yeah, you worry about the strategy. I'll take care of the tactics, as always." Drake interrupted, plopping himself onto the foot of the Hachujin. "I haven't waged a war since Vietnam, brother. This battle has been a long time coming." He grinned a shark-toothed smile, leaning back as he recalled...all the battles he'd been in during the wars he'd fought.

Jake noted the grin, suppressing a sly smile of his own. Sitting in a chair before the console, he booted up the active programs, scanning through systems and taps, bug reports and spy records before he found the files he wanted. He blinked in slight surprise.

"What is it?" Drake asked, sitting up at the amused look on Jake's face.

"They've stepped up work on the Mephistopheles." Jake replied with a wry grin. "Seems like they took your 'loss' rather hard."

"Well, they would." Drake muttered, leaning back again. "After all, ZAFT hasn't exactly kept the growing Panthalassa's hulk secret. It sits right in the middle of the Maius colony cluster after all. Any Common Joe with a powerful enough telescope can look and see it."

"Good thing Morgenroete and us have the Yamato-class ships." Jake nodded.

"The competition is still going strong." Drake cackled.

"Maybe _this_ will be The War." Jake whispered. Drake snorted at that.

- The Cosmonaut -

**Pacific Ocean, _Grigori_, 15,000 M out from Orb  
12:52 PM**

Azrael sneered at the report scattered across the screen of his personal laptop.

"What the hell is taking those idiots so long!" He snarled. The Mephistopheles' development was a month behind schedule, and _still_ the Verin's team lagged in its refit! It was infuriatingly frustrating! The attack couldn't go ahead until the Verin was completed, and the Mephistopheles was maddeningly crucial to the war strategy! Azrael didn't spend his days manipulating the Alliance Council for everything to fall apart in the endgame!

"Damn those laggards!" Azrael growled, slamming his fist on the desk the laptop rested on.

- The Destroyer and The Torch -

The two Abaddons grinned at the suppressed display of fury. The only reason Azrael wasn't leaping about in a screaming tantrum was because of his position on the _Grigori_. A small giggle escaped Lena's lips at the imagined scene, and Edward displayed a small smirk at the thought as well.

Then business had to take over pleasure, Edward switching the computer screen from the spy-cams to the pilot biographies, examining Mercis and Archer's specifically.

"Well Lena...it seems your pilots have been spending quit a lot of time in the infirmary." Edward commented dryly. "Mercis has been in for...ulcers, broken ribs, fractured tibia, sprained knees, bruised sternum, Achilles tendon, severed hamstring...Archer, meanwhile, has suffered skull fractures, broken phalanges, a 'mild' case of internal bleeding, bruised humerus, torn biceps and quadriceps...hmmm...judging by their charts, you've either put them through enhanced physical and mental training to attempt to mold them into the best Coordinator fighters you can, been beating them for every attempt either one has made to hit on you...or both." Lena chuckled.

"It's not funny Lena. You could kill them." The Vice-Admiral admonished sharply, glaring out of the corner of his eyes.

"Don't worry Dad." Lena chirped. "Those two are tougher than they look. Besides, they'll need it to keep up with me and the Extended BCPUs." Edward merely inclined his head slightly, tapping on the keyboard again.

Images popped up, satellite photo-maps of Orb, data files retrieved from Intel operations, transcriptions of 'intercepted' transmissions...much of the data they had on Orb and its forces.

"All of this is crap." Both Abaddons muttered.

"We _know_ the Intel data is false." Edward detailed. "Orb's military probably sent the data out themselves using our comms."

"The maps are twelve years out of date." Lena said. "Every time a camera-sat orbits over them, they jam its transmissions, and the civilian brochures don't exactly have a nice list of every military base."

"The broadband transmissions are falsified."

"Individual spies disappear days after insertion."

"Networks are wiped out within the year."

Quite simply, in the map of the world covered by the bright spots of OMNI Intelligence's knowledge, Orb was a deep, dark island on the face of the Earth.

"How are we to compensate for this?" Lena wondered.

"Battlefield intelligence." Edward stated grimly. "Put out forces, and pull battle footage and sensor data from the survivors. Thanks to Orbs probably stellar ECM and our own ECCM, not to mention N-Jammer interference, the sensor data will be spotty at best, but the gun- and suit-camera footage should be reliable enough. We'll likely be taking heavy losses though."

"That's an understatement."

- The Author -

Alrighty, well. Still lagging behind on the Big Battle of Orb stuff. This is a very informative Pseudo-Phase though, despite its brevity. I wonder how many of you will figure out the truth of the Huynh Twins?...I'll tell you first though, I'm not confirming anything.

("I doubt they'll catch half the things.")

Quiet.

I caught the second episode of the Gundam Unicorn OVA. Damn, I love that Gundam. And the Sinanju ain't bad either.

("Oh gods, please stop, I'm gonna _vomit!_")

I'd love to get an idea on the Unicorn's Beam Magnum though. How they manage to get Mega-Beam Cannon output from a Beam Rifle...and that reload system of it is interesting.

Also, I've planned enough ahead for this series that I can announce one part of where it will go eventually, no matter the ending.

To put it succinctly, you all will get to read about a Gundam sodomizing an AT-AT with a beam saber.

Review Replies:

Robby Cartwright: Thank you.

Alex Yamato: True enough

00virtuezero: Indeed  
Not quite yet, sadly.  
Oh yeah.  
It's very exciting, and just the thing I thought the movie needed (that, indeed, I was already thinking of adding to my version of it)  
That's a pretty good idea. Sure, why not? Nice design...

Kojiro Kun: Yep.

Lord Edric: It's SEED Mode. In it, Kira pretty much acts like a targeting supercomputer, and has above-human (heck, above-Coordinator) reflexes and accuracy. Outside of it though, his aim is...dismal. And since SEED only activates within combat or other-wise high-stress situations, he's abysmal with firearms.

Knightmare Gundam of Ni


	57. Phase 35: Dies Irae Part 1

Gundam Seed: Killer's Realm

Yeah, I got tired of posting that disclaimer I came up with. Suffice to say, render credit unto the designer, that which is the designer's. Gundam Seed and its characters belong to Bandai.

Phase 35: Dies Irae Part 1: Aurora Irae

- The Lion -

**Zenopolis**** City**** Outskirts, Central Command Base, Control Room  
April 22, 71 CE  
11:00 AM**

Uzumi Nara Athha, Chief Representative of Orb and head of the Athha family, widely considered to be the man behind Orb's modern image (one of "touch me and die horribly in a trillion ways") stood at the forefront of Orb's surface command base. The base, while perfectly equipped for the command and control of Orb's myriad forces, was in reality the fake command center. With radio waves pouring out of it, it would serve as a perfect decoy, drawing strategic attention to it while the real base, buried thousands of meters underground, controlled Orb's forces with the help of SCAI-Net.

There was a reason Uzumi was here, the majority of the legislative government behind him, with representatives from two of the other four families. Their pasts were full of failure...the mere fact that Orb was now involved in the war was a great stain on their honor. Others, such as the Sahakus and the Seirans, argued that they couldn't have possibly managed to keep Orb out of the war, and used that as an excuse to not be present.

Nevertheless, those present were determined to go through. For their parts in Orb's current position, they would live or die.

"Are you all sure?" Uzumi asked, facing the console.

"Of course we are. If we weren't, we'd be as bad as the Seirans." One of the elder representatives growled amicably. Uzumi chuckled darkly.

- The Cosmonaut -

**OMNI Enforcer 2nd Pacific Fleet, _Grigori_, Bridge**

"Now should be a good time." Azrael said, smirking. Around him, the bridge burst back into activity with a tense air. The elder Abaddon stood next to his usual seat, now occupied by Azrael.

Outside, the _Celestial-Class_ ship floated almost serenely ten meters above the water, surrounded by five of the seven surviving super carriers stationed in the Pacific Ocean, along with their respective escort forces consisting of destroyers and missile cruisers. Below, almost two hundred Megalodon mobile armors sifted through the sea, scale systems producing an annoying subsonic hum for the sonar crews.

The sensors and communications technicians looked back and nodded. Muruta picked up the phone set into the arm of the command chair.

"To the Chief Representative of Orb and his lackeys this is your final warning: As a nation of Earth, you are to join the efforts against the Coordinators, or be declared traitors to humanity and be occupied. Your continuing refusal to aid the rest of Earth against the Space Monsters has cost the lives of many. Now, what's your answer?" The lines were silent for two minutes, before a gravelly regal voice sounded from the speakers.

"Here is our reply: Orb shall never ally with the Earth Alliance, or any other power that seeks to suborn us to its cause. We shall not tolerate an attack on us, and will take all possible measures to ensure our sovereignty!" Muruta Azrael's face twisted into a cruel smirk.

"So be it." He hissed into the phone, before placing the phone back into its cradle.

-The Lion-

**Zenopolis**** City**** Outskirts, Central Command Base, Control Room**

As soon as a Uzumi heard the electronic tone indicating that the secure communication line had been severed he quickly tapped a key on the control room's digital conference table to open an immediate link with Orb's real CENTCOM facility. A split second later the red eyed hawkish face of Andrew Victor Payne filled the com screen.

"Awaiting your orders representative Attha."

A ghost of a smile briefly flitted across the old lion's face before he responded "Engage the belligerents at your full discretion General Payne."

A small wicked grin twisted across the white haired general's visage. "With Pleasure Sir."

- The Cosmonaut -

**OMNI Enforcer 2nd Pacific Fleet, _Grigori_, Bridge**

Settling back into 'His' new chair Muruta took a brief moment to pat himself on the back for what he considered to be a brilliant plan well executed thanks to the apparently stupid Prime Minister of Orb. Smirking again Azrael began to give his first order, "Contact the carriers and order them to-" His order however was interrupted rather suddenly by a rapid fire series of events, starting with the sudden screaming of just about every conceivable warning alarm in the Grigori's CIC, followed shortly by the cursing of its staff. The XO of the CIC beat the queries of the elder Abaddon and the Suit with his own slightly stressed SitRep.

"Admiral Abaddon, both the fleet and ourselves are currently being bounced by laser designators, active sonar, and dual band radar systems originating from not only the main island but also the majority of the surrounding reefs, atolls, and islands."

If it was any other day Edward Abaddon would have laughed at the priceless look on Azrael's face after the XO's announcement, he however was both not at all surprised by Orb's opening move but was now actually coming close to being worried.

_"The logistics and funds necessary for that kind of outer defense would need to be massive, I guess you really do intend to make us pay in blood for every millimeter of ground we capture huh Vicious?"_ Those were the thoughts that shot through the elder Abaddon's head before he responded to his XO's alert.

"How many Lieutenant?"

"I can't count that high sir." was the XO's deadpan response.

Edward Abaddon glared at the main Island of Orb out of the bridge window while thinking _"Alright. Now I'm worried."_

The next instant one of the cruisers, the _A.F.S Stratford_, was suddenly broken in half by a series of explosions focused on its center, shortly followed by the uplifting waves of underwater explosions.

"Sir! We just detected the launch of...dear God, over five hundred torpedoes!"

"Velocity indicative of super cavitating ordinance!"

"We've lost contact with a third of the Megalodon force!"

"_Sherman_ and _Euphrates_ sunk!"

Another subsurface explosion peeled open the bow of one of the lead frigates.

"_A.F.S. Pendleton _has just been crippled; it and the _Stratford_ were likely struck by mines!"

One Sonar Technician's eyes began to bulge out of his face at some apparently absurd data appearing on his screen.

"Large object surfacing under-"

As though lifted by the hand of a god, the _A.F.S Washington _rose into the air before its spine snapped in half, the Super carrier's precious cargo of almost thirty Constantines and fifteen Strategos spilling out along with crew and munitions before the metallic mass submerged again, leaving the broken carrier to sink amid its dependents.

"Well..." Abaddon said tonelessly, "It seems their offshore defenses were more...robust than we anticipated."

- The Butcher -

**"Enma's Locker" Command Center**

A small but satisfied grin made its rare appearance on the face of Andrew, as the holo-table showed the blasted and broken remains of several dozen Megalodons joined by the hulks of eleven ships, including one of the Alliances vaunted carriers. A low whistle sounded from next to him.

"That's a good first hit." Karl muttered.

"Indeed. Send Admiral Todoka my thanks." Payne commented. "And tell Jack he and the Fuujin may go now." Karl shook his head at the inanity of it all, keying the line open.

- The Madman -

**Orb Waters**

Jack grinned for the slight moment he was in control before Chimamare took over. The more bloodthirsty of the two alters stretched the grin into a crazed smile. Clothed in the Kanehada suit and OMU-P armor, the pilot sat in an ergonomic, free-floating command chair, with gauntlet and boot-like control mechanisms extending from the sides and bottom of it, attached to the OMU-P's own gauntlets and boots, offering a more flexible control scheme. The control gauntlets had joysticks attached as well, for the non-human controls.

The OMU-P's helmet was connected directly to the Kanehada's molecular rebreather, necessary not only in case of cockpit rupture, but also because the entire cavity was filled with a clear Non-Newtonian Gel, used as a shock absorbent to prevent the pilot's guts from liquefying through the forces normally exerted on him.

Not that Chimamare needed it, but it was a nice thought.

With a thought and a flex of his legs, Chimamare sent the Raijin shooting out from the undersea crevice Jack had hid the Gundam in, the gold-tinged Fuujin following closely, observing and recording the Raijin's actions in a fast-paced, computerized sort of self-training.

- The Fodder -

2nd Lieutenant Skeller shook his head inside of the cockpit of his Megalodon in a vain attempt to clear the ringing in his ears and to try and reorient himself after a fusillade of aquatic explosions that had knocked him around like a pebble in an empty beer can. Quickly checking his sensors to identify the FOF I.D. squawks from the surrounding forces he breathed a slight sigh of relief at what he found. Despite the mines and veritable wall of super cavitating torpedoes that had been thrown at them the main fleet seemed to come through remarkably intact. With so far only one Super carrier, two destroyers, one cruiser, one frigate, and only three of the ten _McCourt class_ attack submarines guarding the carriers having been sunk, not including the score of Megalodons that had been taken down as well. Skeller took a moment for once to briefly give thanks to the bureaucrats for approving the budget necessary to add 'noisemaker' decoy launchers to the recently produced and refurbished Megalodons.

Noisemakers were originally created during the 20th century for submarine warfare to decoy enemy torpedoes. OMNI's modern versions of these devices incorporate a high and low frequency sound generator as well as a low output EMP field generator in order to confuse incoming torpedoes. The OMNI Enforcer main fleet had just however used well over half of all their noisemakers and anti-torpedo torpedoes to defend from the initial assault, a fact that would come back to haunt them later.

The Lieutenant then began an immediate role call to see who among the MA pilots in his unit were still functional after the turbulence from all the underwater explosions, disregarding that some of the 'debris' in the ocean weren't sinking like they should be…

- The Madman -

The Raijin's first taste of blood came when an incredibly unlucky Megalodon aimlessly swam into its path. Its pilot probably dazed by the explosions and sudden loss of so many of its comrades to sea mines and torpedoes that seemed to appear from nowhere. Exoskeletal armatures extended out from the Raijin's forearms, wrapping around the Gundam's fingers, and adding one-and-a-half meter long, sickle-shaped talons. The Megalodon _might_ have noticed the silvery Gundam before the claws dug into its armor, slicing through hull and ripping apart the pilot. Mere moments later, Chimamare tossed the shredded remains towards the bottom of the ocean.

- The Cosmonauts -

Captain Vernes was goddamn scared out of his mind. Not only had he seen his ship's escorts sunk, with their lower hull practically disintegrating under the onslaught, but he'd just heard that the last of their escorting Megalodons had disappeared.

"Captain, two contacts, depth...rising rapidly!" The sonar officer called. "Impact...now!"

A loud THUD resounded throughout the ship, with the bridge crew cringing for a few moments before they realized that yes, they had not been blown up.

"HAH! DUDS!" One ensign cried.

**SKREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE**

They all turned and glared at him.

Down in the hold, where over four dozen mobile suits waited, their technicians and pilots looked on in horror as the glimmering, silvery chainsaw sliced through the multi-layered alloyed hull and the feet of several Strategos with a deafening shriek. As the saw finished its dreadful circle, five claws stabbed through the center of the ragged ellipse, before some unholy force pulled the slab of metal out.

And they all screamed when the silvery monster lifted itself out of the rushing seawater, bestial golden eyes glinting with a devilish glee.

Back on the bridge, Vernes stared at the deck, as it glowed gold-orange for a moment before a beam of brilliant red light cut through it, slicing up and down briefly before disappearing.

Two sets of clawed hands forced their way into the small gap, the metal groaning as they forced it wider, wider, until their owner climbed through, four-taloned avian feet causing the deck to _crunch_ as the mobile suit settled. The suit's armor gleamed silvery platinum in the sunlight, golden hair-like strands of wires and filaments set in a top knot flowing in the wind behind it. Two bestial golden eyes glared out from under a heavy-set brow decorated with the twin antennae of a V-fin system, as the fanged maw gaped wide.

"_IT'S A GUNDAM!_" The ensign shouted.

Electrical arcs played between the two sections of the Gundam's jaws, before it vomited a beam of dark yellow-green energy with a pronounced electric-blue aura about it, setting the air aflame as the beam blasted into the bridge structure. The bridge simultaneously shattered and melted, superheated pieces of it flying in a cone from the blast as the now slightly-dispersed beam traveled further, striking a destroyer in the side and tearing open a gaping hole in its flank.

- The Mad-Machine -

A few meters to the side, the Fuujin and its complex AI observed the Raijin and its pilot, listening to the pilot's insane cackling as he arced the Gundam's head to fire the 'Chantico' Maser, carving out the ship's engine room.

Deep within its core, the AI, nicknamed 'Norman' by Jack/Chimamare, processed this.

- The Destroyer and The Torch -

"That'll be your boyfriend." One of the bridge crew chortled, a bit darkly. A glare from Lena served to silence him, but when she turned back to the main view he and the rest of the crew shared a look.

"Damn them!" Azrael snarled again, a bit quieter than the previous nineteen times.

"Sir, the Gundam has withdrawn." The sensor officer informed them. "No sign of the contact that destroyed the _Washington_, and there are no more submerged contacts on the scopes."

"Well, looks like the path is clear now." Edward commented.

Of the dozens of ships that made up the Pacific Fleet, two of the all important Super carriers were either sunk or too damaged to continue, along with seven destroyers that were outright...destroyed, and about four cruisers that were only good for salvage, if that, resting on the ocean floor.

"Guess we're going to need the reserve fleet and their Escort carriers sooner than we thought." the elder Abaddon stated tonelessly.

"Are we close enough to launch?" Azrael snapped.

"Well, the carriers can let the flight pack-equipped Constantines and Strategos out through their VTOL pad doors, but at this range they'll be vulnerable to-"

"I don't care!" Azrael interrupted, snarling. "Send them out! NOW!"

- The Trio -

**Orb Beachhead, 10 KM outside of Zenopolis City**

"Hey! They're launching mobile suits!" Juri reported to the Locker, the signal transmitted by an impossibly complex carrier wave consisting of tachyons and AM/FM radio waves that were encrypted in a quantum system to boot, making for an overall signal consisting almost completely of gibberish to any interceptors.

_"Got it, activating SAM batteries"_ Colonel Hughes replied.

The approaching flights of Constantines, single teams led by a Constantine colored in a minutely-different scheme, squads led by a single Strategos, approached the beach with an air of contempt, even in spite of the devastation the off-shore defenses had wrought on their fleet. Then the missile batteries opened fire.

The first few flights were from the long-range batteries set up on the slopes of the volcano that made up the center of Orb's main island, green-blue thruster flares trailing behind as they smashed into the initial groups of flying mobile suits. The following groups were luckier, the Constantines' CIWS ports opening in time for the gunfire to interdict a number of the deadly missiles. The myriad explosions between the missiles' own warheads and the suits' physical munitions and supercharged capacitor banks made for a rather pretty pattern of fireworks across the morning sky. The missile barrage ceased all too soon as the batteries were exhausted.  
Yet even as the SAM sites died from lack of ammo, the loud _thumps_ and _cracks_ of artillery sounded. None of those batteries were aimed towards this beach, so close to Zenopolis city, but towards the areas were other OMNI Enforcer troops landed with a bit less interference.

The OMNI suits that remained, a still formidable force even with almost a sixth of their original strength gone, landed as soon as they could to avoid any further casualties from any other surface-to-air fire. They moved quickly and carefully, with the higher-ranking troops practically pushing the grunts forward, and only following by stepping where said grunts stepped. The observing Orb units saw this, and chortled. There were more than a few grumbles as bank accounts exchanged virtual currency.

- The Suckers -

"You ever get the feeling that you're being watched?" Lieutenant Bertram said, his Constantine moving steadily behind the vanguard of Ensigns Wash, Herbert, Parker and Jones.

"Ever since I learned that the Vice-Admiral can and is tapping our frequencies, yes." Captain Gerome replied.

"Wait...really?"

"We're the first force on the beach Lieutenant. Orb is rather tricky, and the Admiral wants first-hand intelligence."

"...These rocks look really weird." Bertram changed the subject, motioning with his Constantine's beam rifle at the weirdly smooth rock formations around them. If it weren't for common sense, he'd say they looked a bit like old pictures he'd seen of the Damned writhing in agony...except colored exactly like the kind of ancient volcanic rock one would expect to find on an island like this. "Captain?" Bertram turned to see a stone-colored blade jutting out of the front of Gerome's Strategos, thin stains of blood coating the breadth of the blade. In a second, the top and bottom halves of the blade split apart, slicing open the Strategos as they did before a crackling glow blasted forth with a supersonic crack and blowing apart Wash's Constantine.

Bertram panicked, turning to bring his beam rifle to bear on the thing that had killed Gerome and Wash in the span of a few seconds. He froze.

A mobile suit, at least 5 meters taller than any of the OMNI units present, stone coloring fading to a two-toned coal black primary and bone-white secondary colored armor as the vaguely Gundam-esque head with vibrantly red glowing eyes turned to face Bertram. Idly, in the back of his piss-frightened mind, Bertram noted the suit's strange legs, like a bird's, and more disturbingly, a long multi-segmented tail that was languidly whipping back and forth like a cat watching a cornered rodent. Then the suit smoothly slipped its blade/rifle out of Gerome's Strategos, letting the corpse-like suit fall to the ground as the other three Ensigns turned to see what had just destroyed Wash.

All around them, the 'stone' formations split apart into smaller tailless bluish-black colored carbon copies of the suit in front of them, colors shifting into the same strange insect like coloring as various weapons, from smaller versions of the blade/rifle the one in front of Bertram had, to enormous double-barreled assault weapons with one hand on a foregrip while the rest of the weapon was slung underneath the suit's opposite arm.

"Oh...fuck." Was the last thing Bertram muttered before he saw no more.

- The Stalker -

Juri Wu Nien, the blue haired Megane of Orb's project testing trio, was rather conflicted at the moment. On the one hand she was glad to finally be testing her IBF-VX5 Scythian command suit in live combat against OMNI Enforcers fascist piglets, but on the other hand she wasn't happy about it occurring during an assault on her homeland, with said suit only partially complete. And perhaps most frustrating of all was that she couldn't be out helping Jack.

Life just wasn't fair, she pouted.

_"Then again these guys are probably thinking the same thing."_ she thought while gazing at the remaining four Constantines after having dispatched what she was fairly certain were the squad leader and second in command of the six suit team. Juri then coolly attached her Karasawa Mk.I to her right hip armor before lashing out at the closest machine with her now free right hand.

The VX5 series of Orb MS are essentially based on the MP5 Tetsujins except using many of the design concepts of Orb's progenitor Mobile Suit, the Nemesis Prototype. These suits are also the predecessors of Orb's true G-Destroyers, aka Gundam Killers, and are somewhat similar in their semi-experimental nature to a Gundam unit. Excepting the fact that their weapons are usually already out of the testing phase and that their base designs are all virtually identical. The only alterations to them are some cosmetic changes or slight differences in armament/armor, and maybe a change in their power plant or a limb's design to differentiate them. That said these units all boast an insanely high performance level comparable to and exceeding most any Gundam in existence. Their armor typically consists of some Quantum Crystalline material and other hyper alloys or experimental armor, Quantum Crystalline armor is an armor material of a very unique form of molecular allotrope that does not normally exist outside of a Neutron Star. The armor's molecular lattice forms a crystalline structure all the way down to the quantum level, hence the name, as such the strength and density of the inter-molecular bonds is so great that it borders on being indestructible, literally requiring the point blank detonation of a relatively large tactical nuclear weapon to even damage it in the slightest. And like the Second Stage Gundams these suits are nuclear powered, except by a low output Fusion Pulse Reactor instead of a Fission one, they also replace much of the Tetsujin's Titano-Polymer Musculature with Electroactive Platinum Titanium Nickel Alloy Springs. These electrically reactive springs have over 80 times the inherent power of the Tetsujin's musculature, giving them a power to weight ratio of roughly 500:1. Additionally the contraction and expansion speed of the springs can occur in under a millisecond, translating to ungodly amounts of speed and power.

Luckily for Ensigns Bertram, Herbert, Parker, Jones, and the rest of the OMNI Enforcer invasion fleet the VX5s as a whole were mostly incomplete when they were first fielded for combat on April 22nd C.E. 71. Meaning that most of their armor consisted of relatively speaking "weaker" materials and that their motive and power systems weren't fully complete either, resulting in lower than specified performance.

Unluckily for OMNI though was that the VX5s "lower than specified performance" still made them monsters, especially with Symbions for pilots.

Juri frowned slightly as she gripped the decapitated Constantine's head in her Scythian's right hand. She had intended to simply grab the OMNI suit by its head so she could pull it closer and dismember it in front of its buddies. Unfortunately as marvelous as the COFFIN system she used to control her suit was, it at times was a bit too responsive for even her to control. As a result she'd ended up just yanking the things head off without even tipping the enemy machine in her direction. Sighing slightly she watched the OMNI units respond to her assault in slow motion as she reconsidered her plan of attack.

At the moment Juri had compressed her awareness to the point that from her perspective time seemed to have actually slowed down. A feat she and the other Symbions had discovered the ability to do by intensely focusing on one particular sense, in this case 'sight', at the detriment of shutting down or lowering the acuity of all her other senses. As such Juri was just taking an extra long moment to consider her options while her opponents seemed to be frozen in time. Locking her gaze onto the cockpit of one of the decapitated suit's friends she underhanded the newly acquired head into the farthest Constantine with the force of a Celestial class ship's linear cannons, all but ripping the suit in half. Returning her attention to the decapitated machine, which was bringing its beam carbine to bear on her using its gun camera, she swatted the offending weapon with her VX5's left hand, causing the weapon to shatter like a crystal sculpture. Planting her machine's taloned foot into the headless suit's chest she kicked it violently into another of its brothers, the two suits colliding with a thunderclap of crunching and twisting alloys before exploding. The last Constantine raised its shield to protect itself from the shrapnel thrown from its destroyed kin and to try and put a barrier between himself and his terrifying opponent.

Juri couldn't help a rather unladylike snort at seeing this and was half way tempted to use the "Sepia" on the Constantine's shield and reduce it to splinters; instead she opted for the more direct approach. Her VX5 crouched slightly before using its avian legs to propel towards the OMNI suit like some demonic mechanized kangaroo. The OMNI grunt got to fire one wildly aimed shot before the massive MS collided with his suit in a titanic body check that caused the various materials that made up his machine to scream and groan as they gave way to the force of the impact. The Constantine flew backward still clutching its now crumpled shield before crashing into the top edge of a nearby jetty and flipping over itself, its pilot having been knocked nearly senseless by the multiple concussive impacts. More than happy to kick an enemy while they were down, the two toned Orb death machine 'hopped' the roughly 80 meter distance separating it from its victim to land elegantly by the OMNI grunt suit's legs. Reaching down with the Scythian's manipulators Juri grasped each of the Constantine's ankle joints before swinging the enemy machine up over the top of her VX5's head and slamming it full force into the large ragged volcanic rocks that made up the jetty. Before exploding the Constantine made a surprisingly good impression of an egg being hurled against concrete, shattering like porcelain and hurling its contents everywhere before detonating.

"Well, I wonder how 'The Admiral' likes his first hand intelligence now." Juri stated with a cheerful smile on her face as she turned to face the rest of the OMNI hoard that had faltered in its approach at the sudden appearance of such alien MS designs. Only to be blasted to smithereens a few moments later for their inattentiveness. Juri shook her head slightly as she drew her own ranged weapons, her suit mimicking the exasperated body language.

_Seriously, with training like that how do they expect to survive? _She thought before opening up on the fodder.

- The Fodder -

Waaaaay in the back of the OMNI Enforcer formation, Commander Richard Heading snorted at the reports from the front-line.

"What a bunch of pansy weaklings." He muttered. "No training at all. These East Asian bastards couldn't hold a pre-school!"

"It doesn't look like it sir." Lieutenant Commander Dapler commented. The two were in their respective Strategos, Heading in his standard blue-on-white painted one with a Swordsman pack, and Dapler in a red-on-silver Strategos with the new High-Energy Assault pack, a heavy beam rifle with an elongated barrel attached via a power cable to a large capacitor bank on his Stratego's backpack.

Behind them, landing boats from the ships disgorged another platoon of Consantines, with many others unleashing tanks and APCs laden with infantry for the urban combat portion of the assault. A small beep called Heading's attention, opening a comms window with the Vice Admiral and Azrael

_"Commander. How is the deployment proceeding?"_

"Quite well sir." Richard boasted.

**Orb's Northern Beach, 12 KM outside of Thiríopolis City**

Commander Jiàn Dōng Lóng, survivor of over a dozen battles with ZAFT's Coordinator scum and expert mobile armor pilot, slunk his group past the sheer cliff that bordered a part of the beach.

Getting there had been hell. Most of the landing craft from the _E.A.S Xià Cháo _had been struck down in the middle of the short trip, men and mobile suit sent drifting to the seabed. While in theory that should be only a temporary inconvenience to the MS forces who could slowly slog their way across the seabed up to the beach it still left their force projections drastically underpowered till they actually got to the Glen Damned shore. And to make matters worse, the Commander had no idea what to expect beyond these cliffs.

_"Ni! Zhuan dào qiánmiàn!"_ He shouted, pointing at some private lagging behind and telling him to go to the front. Muttering in some Cantonese dialect, the Constantine pilot jogged his suit up, rising above the last bit of rock -

And with a crack of thunder and searing blue white light that burned into Commander Jiàn Dōng Lóng's retinas the Constantine fell to the ground in four pieces as gobs of molten alloys blown off the suit rained down all over the rest of the unit. A split second later whatever had destroyed the Constantine collided with the sea floor a few hundred meters away after flash vaporizing several hundred thousands of gallons of seawater and subsequently detonating.

_"Mā de!"_ Dōng Lóng swore, hunkering his Strategos down as the rest of his team dove for cover as well. As though the private's demise was a signal, the beach erupted in explosions, artillery shells appearing out of thin air to slam down and blast a crater in whatever it hit, whether the innocent ground or some poor mobile suit. Dōng Lóng, still blinking the spots out of his eyes, took another moment to assess the dead private's Constantine that had been destroyed by the Celestial's knows what. He had trouble suppressing a frightened gulp. The particle beam, or whatever had struck the anti-beam coated shield on the Constantine's left arm first had apparently vaporized a perfectly neat 4 meters in diameter half circle through the left side of the shield. Then continued on to vaporize the left arm's elbow joint before continuing on to reduce much of the lower torso to so much rapidly cooling plasma and molten alloy, effectively cutting the suit in half, before finally burning off the right arm, still grasping its beam carbine, and then colliding with the sea. Perhaps even more unnerving was the fact that the suit hadn't exploded after being hit. The only logical reason Dōng Lóng could think of for that happening was that the energy beam had been so hot it completely vaporized the Constantine's power cell before the chemical reaction necessary for it to explode could occur. The Commander was suddenly feeling even less safe hiding behind this cliff wall than he already did.

Gathering his wits Dōng Lóng snapped over the radio _"Zhao chū zhè shì lái zì!"_

"Speak English you crazy Chink!" The carrier communications officer snapped back.

"Find out where that's coming from!" The East Asian Commander shouted.

"Alright, alright!"

"Don't alright me!" An explosion scattered Corporal Máo's Constantine all over the beach. "Soldiers are dying here!"

"Hold up…damn….we can't track their projectiles…."

"What?" A close explosion nearly tore one of the Strategos leaders in half, only luck saving the mobile suit by sacrificing its legs instead.

"The radar can't see them!"

_"Mā de!"_

**Orb Beachhead, 10 KM outside of Zenopolis City**

"Unlike that mess the Asians are making of the assaults." Heading finished smugly.

- The Surgeon -

**Orb, Northern Slope of Mt. Haumea, 15 KM Southwest of Thiriopolis City**

Mayura Labatt, the maroon haired tomboy of Project Shuurajou's testing trio let the soft features of her face descend into a slight frown. Her orders dictated minimum exposure to the enemy while providing support to the regular forces and despite being perhaps the most cautious and well behaved of her "sisters" she still felt slightly cheated. Being a naturally gifted sniper had placed her in her own VX5 Scythian up on the highest slopes of the main island of Orb's largest dormant volcano with a small team of 3 Tetsujins equipped with the mass production "Wyrm" sniper rifles. Similar teams were also situated on the mountain's other slopes looking over the island's five major cities and military port but thus far all of their action and had been relegated to one or two pinpoint engagements. Mayura had only personally destroyed one enemy unit, a Constantine that just screamed FNG who had scaled some of the beach's volcanic rubble to kindly skyline himself on the shoreline's cliffs. Ordinarily she would have left such obvious bait alone and waited for the rest of the unit it was with to expose themselves before firing on them but she had her orders. As it stood she had her Scythian lying against the side of the Mt. Haumea with its "Fenrir" Hyper Velocity Ion Particle Emission Rifle in the ready position allowing the energy based sniper weapon the size of a MS based hyper impulse cannon to gradually cool after being fired. Her suit and the surrounding Tetsujins had the artificial chromataphors covering their suits adapt a color scheme that perfectly matched the pock marked slopes of the volcano, while simultaneously using the high power optics on their respective machines to watch the unfolding spectacle.

Mayura suddenly felt an oddly warm sensation within her head followed shortly by the equivalent of a text message popping into the forefront of her mind's eye.

_AC: How are you doing Mayura?_

_ML: In a word? Bored._

_AC: LOL, dido that, but probably not as board as I am hanging out her in Zenopolis's under city with the Urban combat teams._

_ML: True, but if everything goes as the General predicted were going to be wishing for our boredom back by night fall tomorrow. Not that Juri seems to care._

_AC: You know she's childish and it's just her way of showing she's worried by acting like that. _

_ML: Well I suppose I can't begrudge her the opportunity to be such a terror to someone besides us for once. _

_AC: That's the spirit. Oh yeah, Arturia do you think you could send the combat footage from Juri's assault team to Mayura?_

Mayura cocked one delicate eye brow at "_hearing_" that and began wondering what her and Asagi's youngest sister had gotten into to warrant the need to watch some combat footage. An instant later a beep on Mayura's HUD indicated the reception of a data package, followed by the voice of SCAI-Net's Command A.I. Arturia over her speakers.

"Sent, and of course I can Asagi." was the succinct reply of the A.I.'s almost musical voice.

Opening the video package Mayura was treated to the multiple points of view from Juri's Scythian and the rest of her assault team as she single handedly swatted the OMNI MS team around like they were mentally impaired toddlers.

_ML: Honestly she has no understanding of the meaning of discretion and with the way she fights like a savage the R&D department should have just made her either a giant axe or cudgel and told her to scream "UNGAH!" and have at them instead of wasting their money._

The garbled mental response Mayura got from Asagi led her to believe that her eldest sister was laughing too hard to respond.

- The Cosmonaut and The Destroyer -

**OMNI Enforcer 2nd Pacific Fleet, _Grigori_, Bridge**

Edward shook his head at the sheer stupidity on display even as Muruta made proud noises.

"- very good Commander. I'll see that you get a promotion when this business is over." Azrael promised, leaning back in his - Edward's - chair, before turning a mocking eye to the Admiral.

"There, you see? The main force is deployed, and Orb will fall soon. You're worrying over nothing." The bridge went eerily silent over that. And when Edward turned a pleasant smile on the idiotic Cosmonaut, they all started wondering just how bad the punishment for cowardice under fire could be…..

"That may be. But I sincerely doubt that they would spend so much time on their off-shore defenses, and then neglect terrestrial fortifications of some sort-"

"Sirs! Reports coming in from the secondary assault fleets." The image of one of the lesser flag officers in command of one of the fleets responsible for attacking one of two minor cities on the northern side of Orb appeared in a window on the main screen.

"Vice-Admiral, sir. Mr. Azrael." Rear Admiral Dragovich greeted a bit stiffly. Understandable, when one considered the complete annihilation of the Eurasian fleet at JOSH-A, and his nationality. Really, he wouldn't even be here if Edward hadn't lobbied the Admirals. Like Abaddon, he was one of the 'old-fashioned' ones, from back when soldiering and military service meant more than a paycheck and rank bigotry. "The assault….it is not going well."

"What!" Azrael snapped sharply.

"Our terrestrial units are making landfall…but only barely. Many of the landing craft are blown to pieces halfway to the beach, and those that do make it must advance under threat of what seems to be long-range artillery fire. Some of the footage….well, it resembles clips from those theatrical films about the one of the World Wars a few hundred years ago, the one with the Nazis."

"You incompetent- Agh! Take out their artillery!" Azrael shouted.

"We cannot. Our flying units dare not lift off for fear of anti-air fire, and none of the fire-finding radars can find the originating points of the shells."

"Cease landing operations and withdraw from the shore." Abaddon butted in before Azrael could alienate the man any further. "Await further orders."

"What the hell is wrong with you!" Muruta demanded, actually getting up out of the chair.

"Something is very wrong here." Edward snarled at the fool. "By all accounts-"_From your propaganda_ "-Orb should have already been crumbling under our assault. And yet, they had enough firepower to damage a significant portion of our fleet before we even reached the shore. And now our land forces are being bogged down, and they're shooting our air units out of the sky until they run out of missiles, or our people land out of fear!" With Azrael now white-faced and recoiling from him, Edward calmed himself.

"We need to regroup, work out a new plan. Orb isn't going to fold anytime soon. Have Commander Heading secure his position." The latter was directed at the communications officer. "And relay similar orders to any units that managed to make landfall with minimal or no resistance. To the rest, issue controlled retreat orders back to their ships."

- The Butcher -

**"Enma's Locker" Command Center**

"Hmmm….should we let them?" Karl asked, turning to Andrew.

"Yes. At this point, they only have corrupted footage of the Tetsujins, and less than that of one Scythian. Edward Abaddon is no fool, but with Azrael there forcing matters, they'll attack around dawn tomorrow. We'll hit them before that. Cagalli's been wanting to see her Gundam, and I believe it would be….cathartic, for young Zala to work out his recent parental frustrations on an enemy he's familiar with." For a moment, there was silence.

"That's going to be an….interesting conversation…."

"What is?"

"Explaining the Magatama to Cagalli."

"…."

- The Redcoat -

**"Enma's Locker" Construction Hangar**

Dearka was typically the epitome of calm, possessing the unique ability to keep his head straight even if say some axe crazy girl was trying to kill him. At the moment however he simply could not sit still at all for the simple fact that he and Kira were apparently the only ones of their original "Gundam Team" as he called it that would not be entering immediate combat.

While most everyone else's machines had been successfully refurbished or completed in time for the battle his own machine the Ferox was still sitting in its construction gantry partially disassembled. From his spot in the observation room he could also see the other machines present including the shadows of Kira's new suit which he'd been hearing the Orb grease monkeys refer to as "The Nemesis Prototype". The best he could understand it was that it was the grandfather of all of Orb's MS designs made into a functional test bed and that it was somehow a strategic weapons platform.

But as interesting as that machine was bound to be Dearka was more concerned with his own machine and the fact that Liene, aka 'Mad Scientist #1', had managed to squeeze an N-Jammer Canceller and an untested Thorium based Fission reactor into the Ferox. Even after seeing the XGAT-109's thorough list of upgrades he was still not too thrilled about the concept of more or less sitting on a nuclear bomb as a power source. Despite the apparently substantial safety measures the whole thing still stank of a rush job, which had apparently been the case with a number of other secondary projects if the gossip he heard thus far was true.

Sighing he turned around to try and engage Kira, who was waiting with him, in conversation, only to find that he had apparently disappeared. Without even a whisper of sound to give away the fact that he left. Dearka shivered. Kira was one stealthy bastard when he wanted to be.

- The Lion and The Killer -

**Zenopolis City Outskirts, Central Command Base, Control Room**

The Representatives were settling down now. The battle had not yet progressed to the end-point, and their sacrifice was not yet called for.

The front entrance of the control room hissed open, allowing a figure suited up in Kanehada and OMU-P armor to step through. Pausing and looking around, he took off his suit's helmet.

"Kira!" The Coordinator turned to look up at the main console; smiling and striding up to join his father.

"Dad. How's it going?" Kira asked, the smile turning bitter at the thought of Uzumi's chosen fate.

"Fairly well. Juri seems to be handling herself well, and I suspect those training scenarios you've been putting her and the rest of them through may have helped a little."

"Yeah….." Kira said shyly, rubbing his neck. "Now if only she'd stop stalking Jack…." Both Athhas paused to consider the sheer insanity of that statement.

"At any rate…" Uzumi said, motioning Kira forward. "I have a few gifts for you." The Chief Representative brought forth two items: a sheathed katana, and an inordinately large handgun. He handed Kira the katana first, even with the technologically enhanced strength of the Kanehada powered suit Kira was surprised at the immense weight of the sword as he slightly unsheathed the blade to inspect it….and gasped at what he saw.

"This katana is made out of the first sample of quantum crystal Orb's factories made." The blade was a glossy black color, like obsidian, but with veins of gold tracing throughout the structure, very faintly visible. "Be careful with it." Uzumi warned. Kira gave his father an odd look at those words "Smell the air around the edge of the blade. " Still giving his father the odd look Kira did as he was told and was surprised by what he smelled "Ozone?" Uzumi simply nodded. "According to Liene the edge of that sword can literally carve the electrons of an atom, as such the inner surface of the sheath itself is also made from a layer of quantum crystal. He also told me to tell you that if you so much as fart at the wrong time you'll slice yourself in half and never even realize you had an accident." Both Father and son had to choke off a laugh at the absurdity of the Engineer's comment but both knew he wouldn't have said it to Uzumi unless there was some truth to it. Next was the handgun. It was…different than any other sidearm made in the last two centuries. First off, it was a revolver, with eighteen rounds in it, 3 per each of its 6 chambers. Second, the actual barrel was mounted in line with the bottom most chamber instead of the top one; this made sightless aiming easier and more instinctive. Additionally the change of barrel position means that more recoil energy is transferred straight into the arm and thus greatly reducing muzzle rise when the gun is fired and subsequently shortening the recovery time between the following shots. Third, it was extremely light for its apparent size, the entire gun being as long as Kira's forearm, with a very thick body at least thrice that of a conventional revolver. "This is the Lion's Roar." Kira looked up at his adopted father in astonishment.

The Lion's Roar was one of the heirlooms of the Athha family, supposedly dating from back when Orb was first formed. It was apparently quite advanced for something of its age, using the same linear firing mechanisms as the Izanagi did. In fact, the Izanagi was developed from technology reverse-engineered from the LR. Angling the firearm, Kira saw the trademark lion-head insignia covering the cylinder reflecting golden light off of it.

"I…I can't take this!' Kira gasped.

"Yes, you can." Uzumi said firmly. "One way or another, I will not be the head of the Athha family anymore. You will." He held up a hand to halt Kira's panicked stammering. "I know you don't feel yourself up to the task. Haumea knows, I felt the same way when my father died. He had this to say to me, that I now say to you: A man's time as ruler rises and falls like the sun. The sun is setting on my time here, and will rise with you as the new ruler of our family, and of Orb. Kira….you don't have to rule Orb. But you will lead our family….And I know you will do far better than I ever did."

"I….." Kira looked down, silent tears streaking down his face.

"Kira." Was the stern, but kindly reprimand. Kira sniffed once, and looked back up, clamping the quantum crystal katana and the Lion's Roar to his suit's hips, and started to salute Uzumi, but paused.

He hugged him instead. Uzumi hugged him back, not at all surprised.

"Take care of your sister."

"I will."

- The Destroyer, The Torch, and The Crazies -

**OMNI Enforcer 2nd Pacific Fleet, _Grigori_, Pilot Briefing Room**  
**1100 Hours**

Except for the glow of the screen, the room was dark. Shadows cast by the collected pilots and commanders danced across the back wall, and quite frankly, the way the light illuminated the two Abaddons' faces creeped the others out.

"Alright." Edward said, and paused the video. The quality wasn't all that great, in part due to the ECM flooding the airwaves from Orb's various fortifications, but one could still make out the basic form of Orb's mobile suits.

They looked alien in their design, simultaneously insectile and avian.

"As you can see..." Edward began, staring at each pilot in turn to make sure they paid attention. "Rather than using the standard humanoid base design, Orb's mobile suits follow a digitigrade leg design similar to birds, making them that much faster than our mobile suits and a hell of a lot sneakier too."

"So they're cowards that can run and hide faster." Orga growled, his fellow BCPU Extendeds chuckling with him. Abaddon said nothing, merely playing the video. While static-filled and shaky, the image was clear enough to see some enormous mobile suit, of the same shape as the others but much larger and with some anomalous fifth appendage, pick up a Constantine and smash it on one of the large volcanic rocks dotting the beach with enough force to smash it open like a watermelon.

"That can also single-handedly crush your mobile suit into a soda can." Lena snarked.

Edward switched the video to the East Asian force's footage, showing the Ensign climbing the cliff….before being summarily vaporized.

"The report from Commander Dōng Lóng shows that whatever beam weapon used overpenetrated the anti-beam shield - which, as you all know, uses an ablative gel coating for anti-beam defenses, in addition to being constructed of various high-density non-conductive materials. Whatever penetrated it also managed to destroy the arm, everything from the middle torso down, and still managed to travel far enough to evaporate over two hundred thousand liters of seawater, at the least, according to increased humidity." Abaddon stated frankly. "Ergo, we can expect your current units would be much, much more vulnerable to such weaponry, considering that the majority do not even possess anti-beam shields of any sort. The most we can expect is some interference from the magnetic repulsors, and even then not much. Well, maybe the Verin's armor will be resistant." Edward amended.

In the back of the room, Clotho took a moment from his handheld to snicker at his two compatriots, earning himself two harsh glares from them.

"At any rate, Orb's military capabilities have been proven to be beyond what our….political analysts…believed." Edward finished. "Thoughts?"

"Bah, let me go at them with the Cimeries!" Orga growled, again. "I'll vaporize all of them in a few shots!"

"Or you'll miss and hit the fleet." Shani said snidely.

"You want to repeat that freak!" Orga shouted.

"SHUT UP!" Lena roared, adopting a drill sergeant-like tone and volume. The two quieted, but not with a few glares directed at each other and Lena.

"Hmm… while I will admit, Ensign Sabnak, that any weapon that operates on the basic principle of a big powerful gun is always of some tactical worth…" Edward allowed, before flicking through the video footage again. "It hardly matters if you are lacking in an inclusive strategy. Now I'm going to confer with the other Commanders, the rest of you are to go over this footage with a fine toothed comb and glean whatever you can from it about the enemy and their tactics. Understood?"

"Sir, yes sir!" was the pretty much unanimous response of the room, though a bit surly in the case of a few BCPUs.

- The Pawns -

**North America, Florida, Miami, Djibril's Estate  
11:49 AM**

_"-And that is how things stand now Djibril."_ Muruta Azrael finished, going into a half-fearful, half-resentful silence.

"That's it? You've lost practically a third of your fighting force and still haven't taken Orb in over two hours?" Lord Djibril, a thin, aristocratic, and fairly feminine-looking man with grey hair and green eyes asked.

_"…..yes."_

"How disappointing. So much material….but at least it seems Azrael Industries will make a big profit in the near future." Djibril said slyly. Azrael, on the screen, fumed silently at the remark. After all, it wasn't he who was CEO of Azrael Industries, no, his _younger_ brother, Bruno held that position. "Considering all the mobile weapons it will have to replace…..and the ships! Ah yes, I should buy stock in Spengler Naval Manufacturing."

_"Would you stop with the business crap! I'm fighting a war here-"_

"And you're making a mess of it." Djibril interrupted icily. "I don't see why, since your forces must outnumber Orb's pathetic few over a dozen times."

_"I-i-it's Abaddon's fault! He's been stalling ever since we started-"_

"I don't care. If Edward's acting up, let him go and get killed. His Biological CPUs are almost out-of-date anyway, including that daughter of his. All that matters is you capture Orb's mass driver so we can resupply our fleet at Ptolemaeus. So get to it, or I'll get someone else to do it. Maybe your brother." Before Azrael could complain, Djibril cut the link.

- The Author -

Woooo! We're back, baby!


	58. Omake: A Treatise on Mobile Suits

Omake: A Treatise on Mobile Suit History and Tactics

Ever since their introduction by ZAFT in the opening stages of the Bloody Valentine War, mobile suits are now ubiquitous on the battlefield, more so than the venerable main battle tank, about as much as good old infantry are. This treatise analyzes the history of the mobile suit, expounding on their development in both design and tactics.

The very first mobile suit, the ZAFT Approved Mobile Suit now known as ZAMS, was an enhancement on the worker pods used by the PLANTS vacuum-oriented mining and construction, adding advanced electronics systems, light armor and weapons. On their initial forays against Earth Alliance mobile armor assault squadrons, the ZAMS teams and their pilots were remarkably effective. The reasons for this are myriad, with several different sources ranging from relative pilot capability to technological advancement. Some of the more basic reasons for the disparity in effectiveness include agility, longevity, and firepower. The first two of these, agility and longevity, stem from the same source: The Active Mass-Balancing Auto-Control system. While initially developed to enable worker pods quicker and more effective maneuvering within the dangerous environment of the Debris Field and most space construction areas, the AMBAC system allowed the ZAMS to duck and dodge around the firing lanes of the Moebius mobile armors, while allowing them to conserve reaction mass for their primary thrusters while still avoiding serious damage, unlike the mobile armors, whose reaction control systems used fuel to reorient themselves.

The firepower example is much more obvious. By using a humaniform base for the ZAMS design, they allowed the ZAMS to be far more adaptable for combat. Initially starting off with a rifle-modified autocannon, the ZAMS armory expanded quickly with special-made weapons, sniper rifles, missile launchers, and eventually more advanced weapons, the potency of the ZAMS as a combat platform expanded until eventually single mobile suits could take down entire space warships with limited support.

By the time ZAFT was making its way past the _Berial_ pickets, the ZAFT Original Networked General-purpose Suit, or ZONGS was introduced as a more advanced unit, incorporating the ZAFT Networked Assault System to enhance unit cohesion, while still capable of wielding many of the same armaments as the ZAMS. It's more humanoid design gave it more mass to use with the AMBAC system in manipulating its inertia, actually making it more agile than the ZAMS in space combat.

While ZAFT's new mobile suits stream-lined the war for them, by no means did the mecha bring about swift victory, especially after the April Fools Attack when ZAFT landed on Earth. Here, many issues that have been brought up in the past regarding mecha combat made themselves known to the Coordinators with a vengeance. While at this point most of the terrestrial military had been brought up with a predisposition towards attrition strategies and tactics during the Resource Conflicts and the end-all Reconstruction War, the militia and garrison troops of quickly adapted when pod-dropped ZAFT forces destroyed their main bases, adopting guerrilla warfare and maneuver tactics to compensate for their relative lack of firepower.

The tanks were half-useless against the ZAMS and ZONGS, for several reasons. First off is the terrain advantage, mobile suits capable of traversing much rougher terrain without undue stress or wear. Second, while much slower in the pull of Earth's gravity than in space, mobile suits were agile and fast enough to avoid the firing arcs of tank turrets, flanking and destroying the armored vehicles with speed. Thus, the job of countering the mobile suits was left to infantry armed with heavy missile launchers.

Aiding the Anti-Mobile Suit Troopers was natural human ingenuity. They were able to off-set the mobile suits' size and power by leading entire squadrons into booby traps like pits, minefields, and the occasional trip-wire when they had the high-tension wire available. Unfortunately, as many traps failed as worked, one instance seeing a platoon rigging a large log to smash into a ZAMS chestplate, with only the effect of scratching the camo paint and spraying splinters everywhere.

And then ZAFT started manufacturing mobile suits designed for combat on Earth, including the GAHMU, the WAAM, and the infamous Isurus. The Earth Alliance was under stress, having lost much of Northern Africa and parts of Europe to ZAFT's forces. On the upside, Blue Cosmos attacks in the wider world went down, primarily because they started making raids on the ZAFT bases.

By now, the Superior Command and Assault Unit (SCAU) was developed, issued to the best pilots and most able commanders, such as Rau Le Creuset. As a high-performance suit, its design was also intended to serve as a testbed for future developments. This aspect was put to use shortly after the G-Units, now known as Gundams, were retrieved, with ZAFT reverse-engineering aspects of the Gundam's technology, mainly beam weapons and Phases-Shift Armor.

Of course, the Gundams themselves further revolutionized mobile suit warfare. All of them possessed the revolutionary Phase-Shift Armor technology, which made them virtually immune to conventional armaments, at the cost of requiring a new energy storage system to provide sufficient power for the armor to work for any sustainable length of time. Their beam weapons made each of the original five capable of routing an entire flotilla with mobile armor support when piloted in capable hands. Indeed, the original five XGAT designs managed to decimate the Fifth Orbital Fleet when they were heading towards Earth.

Each evolution in technology has in turn incurred a revolution in tactics and organization. The original ZAMS suits operated in platoon detachments of twenty-five to fifty, against small squadrons of the Alliance's _Drake_ and _Nelson_-class ships, with a minimum of five _Gamow_-class ships supporting, the ensuing fights more like large brawls than tactically orchestrated combat. With the introduction of the improved ZAMS design and the ZONGS, ZAFT's mobile suits started fighting in small squadrons of seven to nine ZAMS led by one or two ZONGS, with the increase in cohesion provided by the ZONGS allowing for a greater deal of coordination between the mobile suits as well as their support units. By the time the SCAU premiered on the battlefield, units were often split into five or six suit teams, even in larger battles. The April Fools Attack showed how far these advancements took ZAFT, with a small force of three ZAFT MS teams led by the infamous Rau Le Creuset destroying a small part of the orbital defense network and bypassing the rest to deliver the Neutron Jammers.

As such, modern ZAFT MS tactics revolve around the five-suit team, emphasizing speed and the quick application of power to high-value targets such as ships and/or heavy weapons, often deciding a battle in minutes if not seconds. Due to the high-maneuverability of mobile suits in space, this is a very effective tactic, especially when only mobile armors with relatively light armaments were the main defense of said targets.

The tactics of Gundams are far different than that of other mobile suits, of course. With their nigh-invulnerability and offensive power, a single Gundam can win a battle against an opposing mobile suit squadron, or an entire army of conventional forces. The only real weakness of a Gundam when fighting forces armed with ballistic weapons is the time limit forced upon it by its energy supply, which if it runs out, renders the Gundam vulnerable. Thus, most Gundam pilots fight to quickly destroy enemy combatants and eliminate any threats with quick, efficient strikes and ambushes using minimal power to do so. Due to the nature of the Gundam's equipment, such ambushes also efficiently focus maximum firepower on high-threat targets, especially those armed with beam weapons.

One would think that the Alliance's OMNI Enforcer would take cues from ZAFT and the Renegade Gundams with the development of their own mobile suits. However, the Constantine has been deployed in the same way as its mobile armor predecessors: en masse. While the battles in which the Constantines are deployed have turned out better than similar battles, they have still been almost complete defeats. Admittedly though, this same combination of mobile suit and swarm tactics has resulting in greater casualties among ZAFT's forces.

The future of mobile suits seems even more turbulent than its past, with the introduction of Orb's Tetsujin mobile suit. Preliminary results seem to indicate this machine as being a sort of mass-produced Gundam, and actually advanced in excess of the Gundams themselves. Details are lacking, but Orb's use of the Tetsujin thus far indicates a tactical approach almost exactly like that of ZAFTs, with sprinklings of the Gundam's tactics. Also reported have been sightings of some sort of five-limbed mobile suit, presumably a more advanced prototype variant.

Mobile Suits are still a new weapon of war, but past and present developments indicate that they are going to be staying. The Gundams, especially, will most likely remain in one form or another, given the impact of the original five units. Their future role will likely be either as primarily morale units, or test-beds of new advanced technologies.

- The Author -

Alright, Big Battle Chapter 2, _Meridies Irae_, is delayed due in part to some unforeseen complications in the plot, and a slight problem in design flow. So, I wrote up this little document for the more intellectual of readers.

I've finally drawn up the Kiba, although granted it's rather horrible compared to my own mental image. I'll be uploading it to my deviantArt account (it's linked as my website on my profile) if anyone wants a look.

I've started rewriting the earlier chapters, starting with the prologue. I'm pretty happy with the starting chapters, so the main thing I did with them was switch them over to the current format. Future chapters will probably suffer quite a bit more from my vengeful editing.

Review Replies:

Jman12394: It'll be a little less lopsided once Abaddon the Elder and the BCPUs pitch in. And the Agares will be a game-changer in a big way.  
That said, there'll be enough fodder deaths to fill several mass graves.

Alex Yamato: Thank you.  
You know there's gonna be a counter-punch. And then a counter-counter-punch that will be oh-so entertaining.  
I checked it out, but...romance isn't quite my cup of tea, I never played the Super Robot Wars games, and I quite watching the new anime the moment I saw mecha with breasts. That said, it seems rather well written.

Rc1212: Thank you.

Mathiasosx: HELL YEAH is going to be a bit more literal by the end of this arc.

Play4ever: One of the reasons for this fic is that I was a bit peeved with how easily the Gundam-headed Astrays got slaughtered. Granted, they're mooks, but still. Velshard agreed and designed the Tetsujin. And I made Orb a bit more militaristic.  
Yes, albeit Velshard pitched in a bit.

Also, one last announcement: I've opened up forums for Killer's Realm and The Demon and The Dragon. There are two threads each, one for discussion of the main story and one for discussion about more technical matters. You can find them on the My Forums link on my profile

Knightmare Gundam of Ni.


	59. Phase 36: Dies Irae Part 2

Gundam Seed: Killer's Realm

Yeah, I got tired of posting that disclaimer I came up with. Suffice to say, render credit unto the designer, that which is the designer's. Gundam Seed and its characters belong to Bandai.

Phase 36: Dies Irae Part 2: Meridies Irae

- The Watchers –

**OMNI Enforcer 2nd Pacific Fleet, Grigori, Pilot Preparation Room**  
** April 22, 71 CE**  
** 2032 Hours**

WHAM!  
A locker door was slammed quite hard as a slightly tanned (and vertically challenged) 15 year old ensign finished getting into his flight suit. It was a basic Earth Alliance Omni-environmental pilot suit excepting its custom color scheme, being mostly navy blue and silver with black trim. Its wearer, Wesley Mercis (or as he preferred to be called "Wes"), had a serious, determined, and conflicted look on his young face, which currently sported an X-shaped medical bandage on his left cheek thanks to his commander's ... "training" exercises.

"Man, who's hair got up your ass?" a voice queried to Wes from the opposite row of lockers. Wesley turned his spiky black and white haired head to look over his shoulder at his older counterpart. Leaning against the opposing row of lockers with his arms crossed, Michael Archer, like his fellow ensign, had a couple of scratches along with small bruises on his face and a decent shiner over his right eye. However this wouldn't affect the dark blondes shooting aim whatsoever. The blonde 17 year old Michael wore his own custom colored flight suit sporting a black and grey primary coloring with blood red trim.

"Feh, it's nothing." Wes answered. Michael raised his eyebrow at his friend's response.

"Oh, really? Because I'm getting a whole lot of emotions coming off you Tinkerbell, and none of them are varying levels of happy or calm." Wes turned around and scowled at his fellow G-unit pilot for his most recent nickname for a moment before exhaling deeply and leaning back against his own locker and simultaneously bowing his head. Michael's brows suddenly quirked up at his friends very despondent behavior and decided to promptly drop the first sulfuric remark that had popped into his head. "Okay seriously bro what's up?"

"It's...it's just that... my...grandparents live in Orb…" Michael inhaled sharply through his nose in surprise at his friend's confession.

"Oh, so you're worried about them." Michael responded coolly.

Wes gave a "No Shit Sherlock" look. The older dark blonde smirked slightly then stepped forward and heavily clapped his right hand on his buddy's shoulder.

"Don't worry about it man! I'm sure they'll be okay, since they are YOUR grandparents and all they should be pretty tough. Also you did say your grandpa was in the OMNI Enforcers for about 30 or 40 years or something before he retired right? So no worries!" Michael said. Wes smiled slightly at his friends attempt to cheer him up.

"Yeah I guess you're right."

"Of course I'm right! When have I ever been wrong about things like this!" Wes's smile fell into a deep scowl and his eyes gave a murderous glare at the former Juvenile Delinquent.

"Well I don't know. Maybe for example the time back at the academy when you set me up on a date with that cute brunette Russian girl and you said "Don't worry she's definitely not going to try anything kinky on you or anything like that!" I quote. Then after a seemingly good date I walk her back to her apartment and the next thing I know she grabs me, drags me inside, and starts a one-sided game of tonsil hockey before throwing me on her bed. Which by the way I did enjoy very much, but next she gets some chloroform out and tries to put it over my mouth, however I did push her away long enough for it not to knock me out! HOWEVER.. I still got enough of it for it to fuck me up so that I couldn't get away before she broke out some rope and proceeded to TIE! ME! UP! Oh... And also freaking ball-gag me so the sexy, but crazy bitch could watch me struggle for a while, and then she goes to "freshen up"! And comes out wearing this very hot leather Dominatrix body suit, along with a riding CROP! and says " Don't worry baby I'll try to be gentle" I quote again! And last but not least, DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT IT FEELS LIKE TO HAVE YOUR "SALAD TOSSED'!" Wes said, screaming at the last part with a deranged look on his face while turning purple and eyes bugging out from lack of oxygen. Holding up his hands in preparation to defend himself from his friend (and ward off the flying spittle) Michael had on an odd expression that some how combined an innocent smile with a sly smirk as he then smugly said

"Well yeah, but you did enjoy her doing that didn't you?" Ending with an insufferable shit eating grin.

Wes, if at all possible, widened his eyes slightly more, looking positively rabid and his whole face turned the color of a bad sunburn and assumed an expression somewhere between psychotically enrage and utterly mortified.

For just a split second Michael actually believed his pipsqueak friend could very well spontaneously explode.

"Shut. Up." Was Wes's two syllable response that sounded frighteningly similar to bones being shoved through a grinder.

With barely restrained wrath the 15-year old continued to speak slowly and deliberately. "You knew she was going to make me into her submissive little sex slave! And you know I don't have any freaking time for something like that when I've got a couple of guys that I want to brutally kill and or maim into a sniveling pile of semi-squishy human waste." The 15 year old growled. Michael rolled his eyes in amusement.

"Isn't Patrick Zala on the top of that 'brutally and mercilessly kill list' of yours" He commented.

"Oh yeah, him and his hypocritical Elitists snobs." the Ensign muttered darkly.

"Alright down boy. Let's get into our Gundams and wait until our hot Commander tells us when it's our time to play." Michael said grinning in anticipation as he began to exit the locker room.

"Oh and in my opinion Wes, Tatiana was well on her way to making you into her VERY willing submissive, now wasn't she midget?" Michael promptly bolted through the doorway, closely followed by a howl of rage and the sound of something large and heavy violently impacting the space his head had previously occupied.

- The Destroyer and the Spy –

**Edward's Quarters**

"Well, that's interesting." Edward said.

"Yeah. I wonder where this girl is now…." Sariel commented. This earned him an exasperated look from Edward, the Abaddon quite perturbed. "What?" Edward just shook his head.

"I was referring to Ensign Mercis' Blood relations."

"Ah. Yeah."

"It's quite the problematic situation." Edward mused further, steepling his hands on top of his desk. "Ensign Mercis' loyalties are now in question…if this comes to the attention of Azrael, it could very well mean his death."

"I see your point. Well, I guess we can't let the kid down like that. So, want me to delete this?"

"Please do." Edward nodded. "Well, just the part about his grandparents. I'm sure the Blue Cosmos supporters will have a field day with Mercis' enthusiasm for the death of Patrick Zala." David just chuckled. "Moving to other matters, how do you find the Agares?"

"Well, you understand I can't really take it out to play with it. In the simulations though, it's proven just as enjoyable to pilot as I'd hoped. OMNI should give more of its contracts to Adukurf, they make some good shit."

"Indeed. Actually, I believe they are on contract for the next decade, something called the Détruire Program."

"That's good to hear."

- The Troopers –

**Orb Territorial Waters**  
** April 22, 71 CE**  
** 2040 Hours**

On the ocean floor, below even the patrolling pairs of Megalodons, twenty-five of Orb's SpecOpsIntel troopers marched through the muck of the ocean bottom in nothing but Kanehada Powered Suits and infiltration/sabotage gear. Five teams, Shoki, Yokai, Heishi, Usagi, and Kirai, moved towards the waiting fleet.

Not a word passed between any of them, professional resolve and caution guarding against careless chatter.

Shortly they reached an area beneath one of the hulking Haubern-Class super-carriers OMNI Enforcer's navy used for large-scale operations, whereupon they activated their aquatic maneuvering backpacks. Hydro-jet thrusters propelling the five teams up in different directions.

Shoki team shot straight up, the five elite soldiers lightly thumping onto the bottom of the carrier. In a few moments Lilou had detached a device larger than her torso from her chest and set it to remote detonation, before attaching it to the carrier's hull at their initial contact point.

Shoki team leader Gary Shimizu signaled for his team to move towards the carrier's control tower.

Using nano-adhesive pads on their Kanehada, Shoki team deliberately scaled the Starboard side of the carrier to get as close to the control tower as possible while being camouflaged by similar artificial chromataphors as those on Orb's other units, stopping several meters short of the flight deck and the view of undoubtedly a few deck handlers loitering in that general area.

Checking his HUD Gary noted that they were barely in position in time for the opening move of the operation. At less than 10 seconds till 20:45 Gary signaled to Lilou to prepare to "detonate" the device they had left on the hull.

20:44:56

20:44:57

20:44:58

20:44:59

20:45:00

The sonic boom that shook this particular division of the OMNI fleet quite literally created an overpressure wave powerful enough to rattle a person's teeth and perforate their eardrums, to say nothing of the dozens of fractured polymer windows. Shoki team and various other spectators barely caught a glimpse of the culprit's blue-white afterburners as it shot past like greased lightning at nearly Mach 5 and barely 25 meters above sea level. Gary vaguely wondered what Myobu pilot and copilot in the OAF drew the short straw.

At the exact same moment as the sonic boom occurred the device Lilou had planted on the ship's hull, a conical contraption, sparked and lit up for a brief second….

All the electronics on the Carrier sputtered and died.

As Shoki team rapidly moved up to the deck of the carrier Gary had to give ol' commander Vicious his due once more, timing the flyby of the Myobu with the activation of the miniaturized "Gungnir" bombs was a fantastic bit of misdirection. Both in sowing a little chaos and leaving OMNI to scratch their heads as to what actually caused the power failures.

In the rather sudden darkness and confusion, not one person on the crew saw the dark figures of Shoki team as they slipped into the Super carrier's control tower.

As missions went this was one of Shoki team's fairly standard shock and awe "Get in, then GTFO" affairs. Neutralizing an entire super carrier after all is rather tricky business, with a crew in excess of 10,000 members, being discovered as boarders or making too much of a racket on the way to their objective had the potential to be very fatal. Naval vessels operate on a principle of conserving as much space as possible typically. As a result the vast majority of the corridors, passageways, ladders, and few staircases, barely allowed two average sized males to squeeze past each other. To say nothing of the dwarf sized doors, hatches, scuttles, and manholes between compartments and decks that make moving through a ship at a decent pace rather difficult. This was actually the primary reason Shoki team and their brethren were operating sans their OMU, both because a Kanehada wearer was easier to conceal and because not even Lilou's OMU would fit down a single passageway much less a door. At least not without a shit pot of noise being made. And stealth in this mission would be key to both its success and their probable survival. It would likely only take the ship's crew under half an hour to reset the breakers and kick start the backup computer systems. And since the inside of the ship was essentially one giant chokepoint it would still be child's play for the ship's numerous defenders to trap them inside and eventually crack their powered suits open with Anti-tank weapons from the Carriers massive armories.

Entering the control tower Shoki team's first order of business was to set off a few nerve gas grenades in the control tower's air ducts. These particular grenades released a vaporized derivative of a Novichok-5 Agent with a toxic potency 8 times that of VX gas, requiring only 5 milligrams to be present per cubic meter of air to be lethal to humans. One sniff was literally all it would take before the victim began feeling the effects of the nerve agent within a span of thirty seconds. Initial symptoms of exposure being blurred vision, runny nose, slurred speech, tightness in the chest, drooling, constricted pupils, loss of reflexes, and lack of muscle control resulting in twitching and jerking. Seconds later the agent proceeds to it lethal stage where breathing difficulties become exacerbated, uncontrolled vomiting, urinating, and defecating follow before the victim descends into muscle spasms so violent that they break their own bones and expel their own viscera from their orifices.

And the victim is unfortunately conscious through this whole experience until they die of heart failure at roughly two minutes after exposure.

Even Shoki team had to admit that despite how effective the agent was it was also the kind of weapon that they wished humanity could un-invent.

At this point Shoki team began splitting up, darting down the manholes into the corridors below the control tower and navigating by AICA-enhanced blueprints of the Haubern-class Super-Carriers. Very little had been changed from the original specs, letting each team member proceed to their respective targets. Except Boris that is, who due to his exceptional stature, would remain behind instead of venturing into the bowels of the ship. Of course he still had his own job to do as well, namely hosing down all of the important equipment in the control tower's bridge and air traffic center with an oxidizing molecular acid. Then proceeding to the flight deck's catapult control pods and destroying them before subsequently jumping overboard.

John also had a relatively short distance to go to his target, namely the Carrier's CIC, which unlike the bridge, was the real brain of any modern warship and was most likely to have more than a handful of valuable officers in the general vicinity. However, he had to get there first without making too much of a fracas, a task arguably more difficult for him due to his "In Your Face" personality. Heck if it wasn't for his capacity to strictly obey orders it was likely he would never have made it into SpecOps. Still John supposed there were some benefits to stealth, a thought he mulled over while clapping a hand over a hapless sailor's nose and mouth before twisting the young man's head up at an oblique angle before bending it in the opposing direction. Neatly dislocating the young sailor's neck and severing his spinal cord with a wet popping noise. John tossed the rag doll like body into one of many access hatches for various ship systems. But just as he was closing the hatch the sailor's face rolled to face him.

John froze.

The boy's face was frozen in a look of pure terror.

On second thought John hated these kinds of missions.

He much preferred the ones where he just blew shit to hell.

John sealed the hatch on the corpse of a boy not even old enough to drink.

Lilou's job was reasonably straightforward, get to the pilot barracks for the carrier's MS and aircraft compliment and ensure that they could no longer be a threat to Orb. A mild sedative aerosol released into the compartment would likely give her the time she needed to swiftly and quietly slit their collective throats. Lilou personally considered what she was going to do to them would be a blessing compared to the fate that awaited the rest of the crew, courtesy of their newest team member.

Said team member was currently making his way to the carrier's saltwater evaporators at a quick trot using his Kanehada's various light spectrum viewing modes and atmospheric disturbance motion detectors to avoid contact with the crew. Ryan aka 'Apollo' got what the team had considered the worst job of the mission as a result of a lost coin toss with Lilou. His destination, the saltwater evaporators and their related systems, supplied all of the massive vessel's freshwater needs be it for baths, showers, drinking water, engine coolant, pressure cleaners, or reconstituting dehydrated food, it did it all. But Ryan wasn't going to sabotage the system. Oh no, they were going to put it to very good use. Namely by introducing 150 kilograms of Sodium Fluoroacetate into the fresh water distributor pumps. Shifting the cumbersome containers of said material on his shoulder to avoid them snagging on a hatch as he passed through to another compartment, Ryan knew that managing to get inside and contaminate the water system would be extremely hard to accomplish. Especially if they wanted to not alert the crew to the fact that their fresh water supply had been tampered with.

The Sodium Fluoroacetate itself was a Metabolic poison that put simply deprives cells of the energy they need to function. Initial symptoms of exposure are sweating, nausea, vomiting, and abdominal pain. As the toxin progresses subjects become confused and agitated to an extreme degree, in the close confines of a naval vessel the casualties that could result from this sort of mass hysteria could be devastating on their own even if a lethal dose is not received. Signs of a lethal dose are cardiac abnormalities, muscle twitching, and seizures before lapsing into a coma and dying of organ failure within a half a day. As poisons go it is one of the more ideal ones, being fast acting, odorless, tasteless, colorless, and water soluble, the only problem was its toxicity. Depending on the individual, lethal dosage is roughly 2-10 milligrams per kilogram of weight, roughly one gram per person. If the poison is then diluted in water achieving lethal dosage would then become a hit and miss affair, therefore it was critical that the poison be introduced to the distributor responsible for supplying water to the Carriers kitchen's and mess hall for optimal effect. In short, Ryan was going to be earning his paycheck today, though in his opinion Botulinum Toxin would have been so much more effective. But he suppose that the entire thousands strong crew of the super carrier going utterly bat shit crazy would leave one hell of an impression on the rest of the OMNI fleet.

Gary's own task was to use his plasma sword to disable the ships propulsion by cutting into the ship's massive gear drives, a task that would invariably result in him becoming the center of the crew's probable attention at some point. A situation that his subordinate John would actually envy, especially his exit strategy involving the carrier's methane hydrate fuel…

- The Watchers –

**OMNI Enforcer 2nd Pacific Fleet, Grigori, Bridge**  
** April 22, 71 CE**  
** 2057 Hours**

Lt. Commander Jürgen Prochnow, Executive Officer of the Grigori's CIC was an old man as far as OMNI Enforcer as a whole was concerned. Being cynical, pessimistic, inflexible, overly suspicious, cantankerous, and at times very insubordinate. In short, he was a capital "A" asshole. His abrasive personality though was perhaps tempered by his age of 67 years and more than 20 years without a promotion. Currently LtC Prochnow was standing at parade rest next to the Grigori's command chair listening to Azrael more or less scream at Commander Abaddon over the com-line as to why he had been awoken from his sleep by a sonic boom. Never mind the fact that so had the commander.

"As I've already stated Muruta, we don't know what it was other than it was a fast mover traveling at over mach 5. And in the 15 seconds it took the fleet to lock on to its infrared signature it was already more than 30 kilometers away at an altitude of 11.5 kilometers while still climbing, And accelerating." Edward Abaddon said with surprising calm.

Azrael ground his teeth slightly before responding "Then is it at all within your capacity to tell me what happened to the AFS Franken and her escorts Commander?"

"Other than that they effectively went dead in the water when the UFO flew by? No sir I'm afraid not. However we have dispatched teams to the Carrier and her escorts to get an assessment of the situation."

Azrael glared through the screen at Abaddon some more before grunting and delivering what he must have thought to be the last word. "Inform me the instant the situation changes Abaddon." Azrael said before killing the link.

"Smelly little inbred terrorist prick…" Jürgen muttered before glancing at his CO "My apologies for waking you sir but you did say you wished to be made immediately aware of any… Anomalies." Prochnow stated with a sarcasm rich heavy Czechoslovakian accent.

Edward waved one hand slightly in a 'never mind' response as he turned to look at the old veteran. Jürgen possessed what might have once been considered a regal face but it was now so heavily pitted with such a multitude of scars it looked like his bronze skin had been carved from hardwood with a dull chainsaw. Add to this his imposing stature of 1.93 meters and the perpetual frown on his face and you had a man that looked every bit the jaded combat veteran he was. Of course this was all off set by him constantly wearing a set of old round rimmed wire frame glasses, which seemed to only add to his aristocratic appearance.

"Hypothetically speaking Jürgen, if I were to order you to go and kill Azrael right now, would you do it?"

The look Prochnow gave Abaddon in response almost seemed to say 'Are you Fucking kidding me?'

"Sir, if I were to spend the rest of my days reliving the memory of throttling the life out of that over privileged piece of shit, I would feel Blessed." Jürgen stated emphatically before giving Abaddon a pleading look.

"I was merely posing a hypothetical question Lieutenant. Though your enthusiasm is refreshing." Edward had to restrain the urge to snort in amusement at the disappointed look on his Tactical Officers face.

"By the way sir, do you think we should tell the G-pilots to stand down considering the pussy vetoed your suggestion of a night time probe of Orb's defenses?"

A thoughtful look appeared on Edward's face at that.

"No, I think they can stew for a little while longer."

- The Innocent –

Ensign Ann staggered along the corridor, blinking furiously. A new recruit drawn from the ranks of the barely-trained and conscripted, Katrina Ann had been equal parts excited and apprehensive of her assignment to the A.F.S Franken. On the one hand, the ship was all-too-likely going into battle. On the other, the combat pay would help more in getting her mother out of the slums of New Miami, maybe even out of Florida entirely...

Now though...it felt like a mobile suit was sitting on her chest, it felt so tight...Ann tried to take a breath, but it was difficult...

….There was a dark shape before her...Maybe it's another crewman..._.please… help me..._

- The Troopers –

Ryan had previously flattened himself against the wall of an adjacent corridor at the approach of one of the Carrier's crew. The slow erratic gate alerted him to the fact that they probably posed no real threat and as such he stepped back into the corridor to face a young woman. It took a moment for her un-focusing eyes to perceive him. When she did a trembling arm was raised in his direction, the skin unnaturally flushed. Looking at her still soft featured face form an expression a mixture of pain, fear, desperation, and hope, Ryan watched with barely controlled objectivity as her facial muscles twitched spasmodically. Conscious of her symptoms Ryan wondered what cruel stroke of fate led to a potent enough dose of the nerve agent used on the upper decks to reach this deep into the ship. Likely it was pure chance that the unique updrafts and downdrafts created in the thermally varied interior of such a massive vessel led a particularly cold and dense pocket of the Toxin packed air to reach this far before being neutralized. Shoki and the other teams were protected by virtue of their Kanehada's molecular rebreathers, but the crew of the ships...

The young woman vomited at that moment, the contents of her sparsely filled stomach spewing out over the deck of the corridor before she collapsed facedown, twitching and spasming as the Novichok's effects fully spread to her nervous system. The spasms grew worse, and from her breathing Ryan could tell the agent was running its course. In moments, the spasms grew bad enough that she arced up and smacked her head back into the deck with a sickening crack. Unfortunately, it wasn't hard enough to kill her. More cracks sounded as the muscles spasmed powerfully enough to break the bones they were attached to.

She was dead. It was literally, only a matter of seconds.

'Do no harm.'

The memory of the medical oath he had taken only a few years ago rang in Ryan's head. To some those words strictly meant to not make any person's condition, in which it was within a doctor's power to help, worse. The Spirit of the Oath however decreed that it was a medical doctor's duty to ease the suffering of others as best they possibly can.

'CHUUUF' 'PMP'

The girl's body instantly stilled as steam slithered from the muzzle of Ryan's "Snuffer" a stealth orientated compressed air needle gun firing a tiny explosive flechette. With surgical timing Ryan had discharged the innocuous weapon into one of the girl's ear canals as she briefly seized up. The tiny high velocity dart with its miniscule payload of C16 created a barely audible popping sound as it detonated inside her cranium and effectively liquefied the delicate neural tissue.

"Forgive me." Ryan whispered, even though as he said it he had no idea who he was saying it to or for.

Ryan stepped over the vacant corpse, moving towards the evaporators again.

Down below, Gary worked his task quickly, ignoring the bodies of the crew brought to an end by a fresh dose of Novichok. By now the rest of the crew would have quickly realized just what was happening, and the ship's armories would be broken into for weapons and NBC gear. Burying his plasma blade into the last drive Gary allowed the weapon to remain there a moment as the intense heat caused the surrounding alloys to run together and fuse the titanic gear drives into nothing but a mass of lumpy metals. His third till final task complete Gary quickly exited the engineering section

And bumped right into a crewman.

The young sailor had a gas mask on and an OMNI carbine in his hands, although said hands were slack and the carbine fell out until it just hung from him by the shoulder strap as he gazed in terror at what Gary allowed was probably a frightening sight. After all, without a recognizable uniform on top, the Kanehada made him look a bit like a skeleton and the helmet in battle configuration resembled a sort of phantasmic version of his face.

A flick of the wrist and tightening of his fist sent the plasma sword's newly ignited blade slicing across the sailor's neck, neatly severing his head and cauterizing the stump left behind.

Gary briefly cursed his moment of tandem stupidity, firstly for not checking his HUD's local area threat radar before jumping into the corridor. Second was for reacting in surprise to the crewman's appearance and lashing out with his most immediately available weapon. While the Plasma sword was an excellent melee weapon, using it while in the depths of a darkened enemy vessel was exactly the same as turning on a giant obnoxiously bright neon sign over his head that said "I'M THE ENEMY! SHOOT ME PLEASE!". Which unsurprisingly gained Gary the most expected response from lighting up a road flare and waving it around in enemy territory, he was immediately set upon by the rest of the crewman's group. A thunderous roar of fire (albeit mostly uncontrolled) opened up from the next intersection of corridors, slinging hot lead and frangible bullets. Gary frowned as the bullets slammed into his body at multiple points. Although the Kanehada's various armor layers almost completely neutralized the force of these light caliber rounds he was still treated to the odd and almost ticklish tactile sensation of impact. The Powered Suit registered the bullets striking it's surface and sending buffered down pressure data to his nervous system.

Above, Lilou paused as the deafening echoes of gunfire traveled throughout the ship, alerting the crewman in whose midst she was. The men on the bunks to her left were still, blood trickling down their necks, but the others ahead and to her right were already groggily tumbling out of their bunks despite the mild sedative in the air. A part of her commended these soldiers for their training kicking in so well, even as a single staccato sweep with her SMG-barreled Izanagi spewing the frangible-cased 'Bumble' rounds slaughtered them with ease.

In seconds, the entire compartment was silent again.

John, meanwhile, was calmly and deliberately sliding his knife - not oscillating now, just in case the vibrations created any audible sound - across the throat of a crewman who'd just rushed out of the CIC door. The ensign, judging by his insignia, dropped to the ground with a bloody gurgle as John sheathed his knife and hefted his Izanagi, flipping the safeties on both the main weapon and the underslung shotgun.

Slowly, John pressed himself against the small bit of wall separating the door from the corridor wall and palmed the door controls open, hanging the rifle around to offer the guncam the best view, and opening fire as the door slid open. The XO and a few members of the CIC crew barely had time to glance to check who it was before the combination of Lancer rounds and super-heated flechettes tore them apart.

Outside, on the ship's deck, Boris nonchalantly triggered the detonation of several packs of shaped charge C16 stuck to the VTOL lift components and thermesium bombs tossed into the catapult systems. A wonderfully beautiful explosion of a brilliant white-blue thermesium-phosphorus flame lit up the deck, turning the catapult control pods into glowing craters in the ships flight deck. The hollow booming of the VTOL lifts violently dropping to the bottom of their wells only added further music to Boris's ears. Turning and jauntily saluting the deck crew, who were somewhere between original recipe and extra crispy, Boris gracelessly hopped overboard.

Back below, the seared, shredded, and occasionally pulverized bodies (from a synthetically enhanced limb) of men and women littered the corridor leading to the super-carrier's Methane Hydrate fuel storage tanks. Running up and down the line of fuel tanks Gary used the tin foil thin Anti-Phase Shift blade of a prototype utility knife he had been given for this mission to cut large haphazard rents in the tanks without creating any sparks. A task made somewhat difficult due to a number of contusions and broken bones in his arms, legs, and torso courtesy of the Super Carrier's defenders. His initial encounters with the crew had started off with light weight Personal Defense Weapons (PDWs) firing frangible or hollow-point bullets that more or less disintegrated upon hitting his armor or striking any other hard object, therefore eliminating dangerous ricochets in the close confines of the ship. The crew however had been showing remarkable organization and had been steadily increasing the heat they brought to bear, next coming at him with light assault weapons firing solid copper rounds, then bringing higher caliber Squad Assault Weapons firing AP rounds against him. Then going to the next step and apparently using .50 caliber sniper rifles inside the ship if the jarring booms and violent impacts that had flung him against a few walls were anything to go by. While the Big Fifties still weren't enough to cause Gary any appreciable harm, aside from hurting like a bitch and cosmetic damage to the exterior of his suit, the laws of physics still applied and the large bullets colliding with him were an unpleasant surprise. Of course he was now wishing the crew had kept to the lighter weapons, since some bunch of schmucks got the bright idea of hauling a crew served 25mm assault cannon down here to deal with him. As he was running to pass through a four way intersection Gary saw on his HUD that there was another ambush in waiting down the corridor on his left flank. He initially thought nothing of it and kept moving right up until a barrage of 25mm cannon rounds collided with his left side and sent him cart wheeling like a rag doll down the corridor on his right. A mixture of the intense overpressure stunning the portable assault cannons crew and Gary being bullet punted through a hatch saved his life. That said Shoki Team's Leader was still currently in agony after a first hand experience as a dryer ball. And after that encounter had cut through several walls and floors to make a short cut to his current location. Grimacing once more Gary gazed at the compromised exterior of his Kanehada, gaining a new appreciation for the suit considering its exoskeleton was now the only thing enabling him to move swiftly on his broken left leg. And if the specs were correct he still had a high probability of surviving the next part of the mission, even if he didn't R&D would still recover potential life saving combat data from the Kanehada.

Looking at the explosive white fog now pouring from the fuel tanks Gary randomly tossed some incendiary charges around the room before exiting through the same entrance. This time he was lucky in that it was taking the crew a bit longer to get organized, likely because they were busy blocking off any conceivable escape from this section of the ship. Too bad for them his exit strategy was inconceivable to most, a thought he entertained while activating his plasma sword once more and directing fire from his still functional Izanagi down another intersection. The fact that he was baiting them was so obvious it wasn't funny but Gary was counting on general battle hysteria to keep them ignorant as to just what was about to happen. Following his HUD map Gary slashed through a bulkhead with his plasma sword to gain immediate access to one of the carriers ballast tanks and one of the massive seawater control valves. Jumping through the makeshift doorway Gary cursed colorfully at the jarring and painful landing in hip deep water before moving to spray detonation foam around the man sized valve that opened to the sea. As he worked, there came a large racket through his new door, signifying the approach of what was probably a large and well-armed mob of Enforcer marines, finally ready to kill him good.

His suspicions were part-way confirmed when a graying soldier with a buzz-cut and a tattoo of the Earth with crossed rifles on his cheek poked his head inside the ballast through the still marginally hot "door" with a new-model FMG-256 Javelin V Anti-Tank man portable missile launcher over his shoulder.

The obviously veteran soldier saw Gary's rather ghastly visage, courtesy of the Kanehada's headpiece, and the detonator clenched in one fist. The slightly disbelieving look the old soldier sent his way was entirely expected considering that most people in their right mind would never detonate any sort of close proximity High-Explosive in what was essentially a confined metal box.

"If it's any conciliation, this is gonna suck for the both of us." Gary commented to the guy ruefully, and then triggered the detonator.

The DetFoam on the valve exploded first, allowing seawater to come relentlessly gushing in. The methane hydrate fuel by this point had had ample time to evaporate and disperse through this section of the ship in vast quantities. The incendiary charges in the fuel storage room detonated an instant later with a significantly more fiery effect. Due to the methane and hydrogen vapors in the air, there was yet a third explosion that eviscerated that section of the vessel and blasted a gaping wound through the keel of the super-carrier. And following the natural course of events, the ship began to sink.

Sinking, Gary said one thing:

"Ow."

- The Destroyer –

**OMNI Enforcer 2nd Pacific Fleet, Grigori, Bridge**  
** 2219 Hours**

Edward stared at the half-sunken form of the Franken. A list scrolled down the screen clamped to the command chair's arm, listing the damages inflicted upon the super-carrier. Aside from the gaping hole in its keel and the damage to the catapults, the primary bridge controls were quite literally dissolved away, the VTOL landing pad/lifts' mechanisms were smashed beyond quick repair, and at least half of the crew were dead or dying of one chemical weapon or another.

"Sometimes…." The eldest living Abaddon muttered, with a tone a few notches shy of sulking and with a harsh glare in Orb's general direction, "I really hate that man."

Around him, Jurgen and the bridge crew nodded.

Outside, one of the catapults opened, a large blocky shape easing its way past the doors before dropping like a brick into the waters of the Pacific Ocean.

- The Redcoats –

**Orb, "Enma's Locker" Hanger**  
** April 23, 71 CE**  
** 0347 Hours**

"How long before we hit them back?" Yzak demanded, directing the inquiry at Liene. He and the rest of the old Le Creuset team were gathered in the hanger intended for the Gundams and other mobile suits of similar status. It was just like any other hanger ever made, and remarkably familiar and comforting in its similarity to the Barachiel's hanger, when one accounted for the grossly increased size.

All of the gantries were occupied, most of them by Tetsujins, Except for twelve of them that were obscured from casual view by metallic bulkheads surrounding each gantry from one part of the wall-mounted catwalks to another, mounting various pieces of technical diagnostic equipment for pre-battle tuning. Each of the 'Redcoat' pilots knew precisely which of the twelve mobile suits interred in each casket was theirs, but the one continually drawing their attention was the one at the end of the hall, marked:

**XSBF-000**  
_Agrona_

"You three are not going out at the moment." Liene replied, somewhat distractedly, indicating Yzak, Dearka and Nicol. "However, you are." He nodded to Athrun.

"What!" Yzak screeched, outraged.

"And so is she." Liene added, motioning at the small door behind them, which opened to reveal a fuming Cagalli in makeup and a beautiful green dress, followed by Andrew, Karl, Jack and Kira.

"-And just why the hell did we have to do that!" Cagalli shouted. "What's the point of dressing me up like a peacock and sticking me up in front of the cameras!" She seethed.

"Morale is a very powerful factor in war, Miss Yula-Athha," Andrew replied. "As the 'Shining Lights of Orb', both you and Kira are the main figureheads of our nation." Lacking an objection to that, Cagalli just sighed. "Further, we have to show that you two, as our leaders, are perfectly willing to fight on behalf of the people of Orb, and it's actually more important with the both of you since neither of you are well-known by the common populace."

At this, Cagalli's eyes lit up with what everyone noted to be an over-eager light.

"In anticipation of this role, I commissioned the XSBF-002 Magatama." Liene waved to one of the techs at the far end of the hanger, near the MS entry. The technician flipped a switch, dropping the bulkhead around the gantry closest to them.

It was a beautiful Gundam, with smooth, golden armor curving elegantly over its subtly feminine figure, delta-shaped wings and a V-fin design that had the antennae protruding out from the forehead at the regular angles, but then smoothly curving sideways with five small sub-antennae per arm protruding upwards at regular intervals, resembling a tiara or crown.

Cagalli was….not pleased.

"Haumea damn it! Andrew! I said I wanted to fight with everyone else, in a standard Tetsujin if that's what it took, but I didn't mean for you to make this!"

"Huh…" Athrun mused, taking in the golden Magatama's features. "You know, when compared with this, the Princeps looks that much more like a knight…." That comment made a connection in the minds of everyone around, a look of suppressed rage growing on the face of Cagalli while humor erupted in the expressions of the others, resulting in…..

"You bastards!" Cagalli shouted at the rest of them, as everyone except Andrew and Liene broke down and started laughing, and even those two had were snickering. It took only a moment for them to regain control.

"There is a legitimate reason for making the Magatma so….ostentatious." Andrew pointed out. "As I said, morale has a large impact on a nation at war, especially for the soldiers fighting on the front lines. Seeing you, in that Gundam, out there, fighting with the rest of the troops would make them fight all the harder. Could you leave them?" By now, Cagalli was calm, and actually looked a bit guilty. "Plus, the pair of you," Andrew added with one of his cruel little grins, indicating her and the Magatama, "Make a great sex symbol."

Cagalli's jaw dropped, and she started sputtering in an unholy rage, while everyone behind Andrew literally choked back new fits of laughter.

"I am not about to model for the PR corps so they can flaunt my image to the public!" She roared, ascending to a high-pitched shriek towards the end. Liene gave her an almost pitying look.

"Your highness, do you really think that with today's technology it wouldn't be a simple matter to do a bio-map of your face and body and render it in any way possible?" He ended with a raised eyebrow, while both Cagalli and Athrun were blushing to the roots of their hair. Now, Cagalli had a look of absolute murder in her eyes, with everyone around silent now.

"You know Princess, that angry look on your face is completely ruined by your makeup and dress." Jack commented, breaking the silence. Cagalli's murderous glare intensified, before she was startled by the sudden appearance of the semi-infamous 'Trio', Asagi, Mayura, and Juri. The former two flanked Cagalli, while the latter now pursued Jack around the hanger.

"Actually, your Highness, modeling for the PR corps is pretty good money." Mayura said.

"Yeah, they pay us a lot of cash to pose for them." Asagi added. The three unattached Redcoats made mental notes to go check out Orb's websites for those images and photobooks, while Cagalli looked scandalized, turning about and heading for the door. She tripped over her dress, sprawling to the floor. This triggered the slightly creepy, if humorous, ambient noise of laughing, emanating from the gantries.

While everyone else paused, slightly scared by that event, Kira motioned at Athrun. It took a few moments, but he caught the message. He walked over and helped the poor girl up, just for her to snarl and stomp off.

"You know, even if she's ticked off at you, it would still be wise to go after her, because you'll just end up regretting it one way or another." Liene advised the former ZAFT pilot. Athrun simply nodded, taking off after Cagalli as the Orbites shared looks, the Redcoats still cowering slightly from the gantries.

Liene then says "Well I guess that answers the AICA question."

"What question?" Jack asked. Liene smirked.

"If a Tsundere blond girl wearing a dress falls down in a hangar full of Tetsujins, do the Mobile Suits laugh?"

- The Watchers –

**Pacific Ocean, Grigori, Upper Hanger Decks**  
** April 23, 71 CE**  
** 0722 Hours**

To the uninitiated, the array of ten mobile suits occupying the decks of the Grigori's upper hangers would seem unimpressing compared to the hordes being deployed from the surviving super-carriers.

However, those with a lick of common sense and knowledge of current events would recognize five of the ten as the strangely named 'Gundams' that had been popping up in the Earth Alliance news reports as 'Humanity's best weapon against the Space Monsters', from the bulky and monstrous Cimeries to the sleek and elegant Samyaza, to the strangely tarp-covered unit in the last berth.

The other five were certainly less impressive, but still a cut above the cannon fodder waiting in the holds of the carriers below. Strategos, each subtly tuned and customized to its pilot's preferences, each with an equipment pack loaded with weapons and tools to allow the suit to do its job.

Abaddon stood in the center of this array of power, the mobile suits' pilots before him.

"I believe this is where most 'great leaders' give a long-winded speech of some sort." He commented, to the amused faces of Thatcher and his daughter, and the confused ones of everyone else. "Get to work."

Without further ado, the pilots scrambled for their machines.

And underneath the Grigori, left there since the destruction of the Franken, the Agares drifted, Sariel in its cockpit.

-The Stalker –

**Orb Beachhead**

The Tetsujin's cameras were quite easily able to spy on the relatively distant fleet of OMNI naval vessels, so Juri's Scythian was seeing the movement of the ships, arrogantly charging towards her shoreline defenses. A slow smile spread across the blue-heads face, with the Tetsujin's gathering around her towering Scythian like a flock of carrion crows ready to feast.

As the super-carriers approached, teams of Constantines and Strategos dropped out of VTOL pad-doors to sink to the ocean bottom. At this distance, the sea floor was just above the floor of the pressure tolerances of most mobile suits, although barely. The OMNI Enforcer teams would be able approach the shores almost unopposed.

Almost.

Juri grinned as the mines exploded, triggered by remote from Enma' Locker. Sadly, with the greater focus on anti-ship and -submersible defenses, they'd only been able to recently bury the explosives and a relatively small number of them at that, only enough for a single rank of mines before the larger beaches more likely to serve as landing zones. But they'd made the Cosmonauts a little more paranoid now, buying time for the defensive teams to set up.

Then, the Grigori's catapults opened, the top starboard and port ones. From the port catapult came a team of Strategos, each differing from the mooks already on the air or in the sea. All of them flew, coming into a staggered formation, almost lackadaisical in demeanor. Then the big boys came out, much to the mixed apprehension and glee of Juri.

The first out of the starboard catapult was one already known to the Orbites, a sleek and aerodynamic form jetted out from the Grigori, turning into a wide orbit about the craft as it waited. The Samyaza.  
A moment later, a new form was ejected, a Mobile Armor with a nose like a broadsword's blade and small-swept-back wings. Juri scanned the thing quickly, pulsing the data back to Enma's Locker. This was the first actually graphical data Orb had gotten of the Verin, OMNI's new aerospace superiority Gundam. The Verin joined up with the Samyaza, feinting and juking in all directions like it was piloted by a kid hopped up on sugar and caffeine, albeit somewhat restrained by the Samyaza's presence. Trailing behind them was an entire company of Constantines and Strategos equipped with flight-enabled equipment packs.

The next two were more classical Gundam designs, more in-line with the original five G-Units. First out was a large and heavy Gundam that looked like an even more brutish than Dearka's Ferox. It was large, massive even, albeit rather short. The angular blue-gray armor by itself must have massed as much as a single Megalodon, making the Cimeries resemble an enormous, over-weight bully. In its left hand, the Gundam hefted a short-barreled weapon with two barrels, hefted like a man-portable minigun. The other hand had a similar grip, but looked more like 17th century hand-cannons, attached by a thick cable to the side of the backpack unit. Folded next to the hips were two beam cannons. Distinguished from the shoulders only by their lighter blue coloring were four middling-sized missile launchers, two per shoulder, and seeming as if someone had just ripped the launch cells off of two MLRS trucks and welded them onto the Gundam's shoulders.  
Probably not too far off, that. Protruding at an angle from the spaces between the shoulder-mounted cells were four launch rails, unfolding even as the last Gundam emerged from the Grigori.

Standard Gundam shape, like the Cimeries, the Focalor was splashed with dark green across most of its body, with a slight turquoise tint accenting its knuckles, joints, and eyes. Two moderately-sized gatling-style weapons with three barrels hung from its shoulders on arm-like turret mount, while beam cannons were stored in exactly the same place and manner as the two visible on the Cimeries. A linear cannon unfolded from its storage position on the back of the right shoulder to mount itself on top of the appendage. Gripped in the Gundam's hand was a scythe, fifteen meters long and with the deadly monomolecular blade protruding at a 110-degree angle from the shaft. Molded into the back of the shaft's upper portion was a small ion beam gun.

Okay. No big deal. The Gundams were tough, but their new-fangled Trans-Phase-Shift armor was vulnerable to energy weapons, and even without those, enough physical pounding would drain their capacitors until the Tetsujins could just tear them limb from limb.

Then, something happened that none of them had any idea about.

An enormous limb reached out of the surf, a three-digit claw smashing into the sand of the beach as its owner crawled out of the sea. The great red-green plated body of the beast rose, a red-tipped tail uncurling from under it to arc overhead like the stinger of a scorpion. Enormous red, rectangular claws hung from under its body, next to the front pair of legs. Two large railguns were mounts perpendicular to the body of the enormous mobile armor, between them a line of six missile launchers incorporated into the dorsal surface. Eight CIWS turrets, four on the top and four on the bottom, scanned the sky and land for threats to the mighty machine.

- The Butcher –

**Enma's Locker, Command Center**

The Orb command center was a large room, one wall dominated with an enormous map of Orb's main island and the surrounding sea for a hundred kilometers, with smaller sub-screens popping up within as events necessitated. One sub-screen now displayed images of the Watcher's new mobile armor.

"Well, that could be a bit of a problem." Karl sort-of gasped. Andrew merely grunted, studying the scans Juri forwarded.

"It looks like one of Adukurf's designs." Liene observed. "It resembles the basic morphology of their proposed construction MA, but on a larger scale."

"It would seem that our intelligence networks have not penetrated the Watchers as well as we hoped." Andrew murmured. On the screen, Constantines and Strategos began to emerge from the waves, trotting after their armored leader. Teams, then squads, followed by platoons formed out of the initial confused mess, the OMNI pilots notably more confident with their elites above them and beside them. "Arturia, deploy the forward defensive screens after Juri and her detachment engage the landing forces." Then a section of the main screen flashed briefly, opening another subscreen displaying a real-time satellite feed.

"OMNI Enforcer aerial forces engaging the defenses at Onogoro Island." Arturia's voice intoned.

- The Torch and The Raider -

**Onogoro Island, Airspace**

The Samyaza dove, juking to the side as one of Orb's new mobile armors, looking like some variant of the Shadowfax stretched to fit the profile of some kind of 21st-century fighter jet; darted past, 35mm rounds darting from the side-mounted linear autocannons. Growling, Lena pulled the transformed Gundam up, strafing the MA with fire from the Storm beam SMGs. As she did so, a wing of the smaller aircraft locked onto her tail, peppering the Samyaza's backside with fire from their autocannons. Other than a few shudders becoming rougher than normal, there was no effect.

If the former new air-to-air unit resembled an MA shaped like a fighter, the latter looked some sort of fighter without a cockpit, or really anything beyond forward-swept wings and fuselage that all joined together to make a sort of W-shape that constantly shifted, their wings apparently shape-shifting. It was notable that there far more of the latter than the former, and while the more traditional-seeming MA fought like normal aerospace craft, the small flying wing-drones were like some sort of insane swarm of hornets. They'd started swarming the air-borne mobile suits the moment they'd come within range of Onogoro and the Kaguya Mass Driver facility, launching from the small air strips through both Vertical and Short-Take-Off/Landing (VSTOL) methods.

It was currently all the Constantines and Strategos could do to survive. Their flight units were based off of the Augury's Angelos Equipment Pack, leaving them with little more than a standard beam rifle or linear assault rifle and a laminated shield. And it seemed it took multiple beam hits to take a single one of the defending craft down.

A great equalizing factor was the two Gundams, especially the Verin. While Lena's Samyaza had the distinction of being the first 400-series unit, it was in actuality a stop-gap, designed and produced for an unexpected addition to the BCPU team. The Verin, on the other hand…..

The sleek fighter-form of the Gundam was well-suited for its insane pilot's tactics. The initial sortie of the Orb aerial forces had merited nothing more from Clotho than a shrill cry of glee and a massive pulse from the PPDE that was the unit's main propulsion sending it smashing through the formations before it. The Anti-Phase-Shift blades that made up the Verin's nose in its current form sliced through whatever material made up the armor and superstructure of the enemy craft, albeit with some difficulty.

The initial kamikaze run had forced the surrounding swarms to refocus on the Gundams, some of the smaller craft pulling maneuvers that all but confirmed them as drones of some sort, given that said maneuvers - among them turning on a dime, and flipping upside down - would have liquidated any pilot. The larger mobile armors used more conventional dogfighting maneuvers to turn about. Now, the battle was a tangled mess, with beams of various natures flashed between the different combatants, along with linear rounds, missiles, and such.

A powerful bright beam fired from the Verin's main gun, a special kind of weapon mounted on the underside of the current configuration. This weapon had a surprise though, for where normal weapons fired their projectiles and beams in a ballistic arc or straight line, the beams fired by the Hresvelgr arced from the weapon's barrel to strike any target!

Clotho's first shot took one of the mobile armors in the nose when it lined up behind the Verin, the strange glossy material warping and glowing from the heat and stress. More shots followed, striking out at many different targets, repeated shots bringing down several of the enemy craft.

On Lena's part, she tired quickly of the dogfight, transforming the Samyaza into its humanoid form and slicing the Achilles out from its sheath, bisecting one of the drones. A flicker of light preceded an ion beam that slashed across the armor of the forearm, leaving a half-melted blackened streak across it. Growling under her breath, the youngest Abaddon drew and fired the Devastator rifle, a one-two punch of linear round burst and beam smashing into one of the MA, which promptly exploded as the superheated plasma touched off the fuel and missiles.

The Pathing Calculation Program aided the two Gundam's significantly. While less useful against the numerous projectiles that flew through the air, both versions of the program allowed a significant increase in accuracy. In the case of the Version 2 program installed in the Verin, combined with the Hresvelgr, it allowed as close to 100% accuracy as was possible. Every single shot struck a target, and while not every one was a killing hit, it had an effect.

The swarm slowly dispersed as the toll mounted on the Orbite craft, most of the losses inflicted on the drones, although a few of the mobile armors had fallen prey to the Gundams.

"Status?" Lena barked.

"Not good ma'am." The current ranking officer of the surviving OMNI suits replied. "Platoon 27 is virtually gone, and teams 7-13 are severely diminished. Most of the rest of us are moderately damaged, and our energy reserves are running low from having to fire so much during flight."

"Shit. Land then." Lena cursed. Then she did a double-take. "Where's Clotho?"

- The Princess and The Prince –

**Enma's Locker Launch Tube Facility 72-A1, Under Zenopolis City**

There was a hum in the air, from the charging of literally hundreds of capacitors in preparation for the discharge that would send the Princeps, the Magatama, and a Tetsujin team with Tengu drones attached to their backs hurtling up into the sky.

"You ready for this?" Athrun asked.

"Shut up!" Cagalli snapped. "I'll be fine! Just worry about yourself."

For his part, Athrun was more than a little weirded out by his new Gundam's cockpit, and all the bells and whistles that came along with it. The controls were one thing, a few hundred hours of simulation training having familiarized him with them, to an acceptable extent according to Karl. The constant 'sensations' caused by some of the systems were unnerving. However, he at least was combat-hardened. Cagalli, on the other hand….

"Eh, don't worry about it." The leader of their Tetsujin team, one First Lieutenant Ed O'Malley, butted in. "If she gets into any major trouble, we're here to pull her out."

"Hey!" Cagalli's indignant retort was, by unspoken agreement, ignored.

"We deal with the fodder; you and her Highness get rid of the big ones." O'Malley continued, "Simple and effective. The Cosmonaut's wig out, piss themselves and run, while we make a big pile o' parts out of the little ones for you to stand and pose on impressively."

"I can take care of myself." Cagalli muttered, somewhat dejectedly.

"Be that as that may missie, Ol' Vicious told me and me mates to look after you, so that's what we're going to do, while you're boyfriend does his 'vengeance of the Coordinators' bit."

"It's not-"

"Ah, it doesn't matter. You go make them dead."

The next moment saw the seven mobile suits sent screaming up the shafts, propelled by massive electromagnetic forces until they were clear of the launch tubes, a thundering boom following their sudden flight.

The vista had changed significantly during the ongoing battle. While most of the lower-story buildings of Zenopolis City were still in their normal places, most of the high-rises and other more expensive structures were receded into the ground! Quite literally. Where once they stood, thick-looking armored plates covered the ground.

Athrun was still gawking when Cagalli transmitted a squawk.

"What the hell is that thing!"

A HUD element highlighted the forward beachhead, where a line of metal walls about shoulder-high to a Tetsujin separated the front-most elements of the Orb Army MS Company staffing that area. While the Tetsujins, and what Athrun guessed was one of the Scythians Payne had mentioned, hunkered down behind the shield walls, approaching them was a force consisting of the usual Constantines, Strategos -

- And one frankly enormous Mobile Armor. The thing was as tall as two Constantines stacked atop one another, and as wide as three set side-by-side, and looked like a gigantic metal scorpion, scaled over like a fish.

While they watched, the two cannons on the back of the MA fired, whatever projectiles they fired slamming right into the shield wall.

- The Watcher –

David Sariel was having a great time. He didn't get out in live combat often, but The Watchers' intelligence officer found that he got a big thrill out of it. There'd been several joking comparisons made between him and the 'super-spies' that were popular way back when, during his Intel training, but that didn't change facts.

Probably why he'd ended up in Australia after that discharge, running a criminal empire.

The Agares itself was a fond reminder of those times, in its arachnid design._ Ah, the things I did with scorpions and thugs…._

He fired another double-shot from the 'Zerkrachen' High-Velocity Railguns, the twin sonic booms creating an interesting ripple effect in the air as the rounds smacked into the surprisingly tough barrier in front of the Agares. The HVAP rounds the Zerkrachen fired were judged to be able of taking down even Gundams due to the sheer force liquefying the pilot in the cockpit, so it was rather surprising to see apparently non-Phase-Shift-Armored defensive barriers resist them.

Shrugging, Sariel brought the Juron mounted on the Agares tail to bear on the probably weakest portion of the wall that he'd been pounding on.

As he did so, one of the Orbites' weird mobile suits popped up from behind the wall, it's similarly weird beam rifle spitting a stream of high-velocity plasma at the Agares' main body. It surprisingly effective, cracking the plate in the center, but still doing little overall damage to the Agares itself.

Snickering slightly, Sariel fired. The Juron, technically classified as the 'Maser-Assisted Plasma Cutter', spat forth a bluish-white stream of super-heated plasma far beyond what any other beam weapon was capable of emitting. The beam struck the wall, and while whatever material they were made of resisted for a few seconds, the beam won out in the end, making the individual barrier sections white-hot and slicing through them like a heated knife through half-melted butter. Sariel swept the beam to the right, cutting into the wall further and further until he stopped the stream.

Half of the wall was sliced off from about MS waist-high up, the half-melted, cut-off halves toppling to the ground, oozing slightly.

"Well, what are you waiting for?" Sariel barked in his best command voice. "Get over there!"

The troops were emboldened by the Agares' success, and charged forward. They did so in organized groups, the Constantines equipped with more basic Assault Packs clustering around their more specialized Strategos brethren, guarding them with their anti-beam shields. This didn't really help when the defenders stood back up in force.

David himself was surprised to see that he hadn't inflicted a single casualty among the Orb forces despite the speed and power of the Juron sweep, so the OMNI mobile suits had little chance to react before the Orb mobile weapons cut into them with fire from their strange beam rifles, swarms of missiles from launchers on their shoulders, hips, and limbs, linear rounds form both small forearm-mounted and hand-held linear machineguns, and other assorted weapons of grievous destruction. The anti-beam shields had already been proven to be...decidedly less-than-effective against at least one of the Orbite's weapons, and while they were of more use against these apparently more common weapons fielded by Orb's MS, they were still buckling under the fire and smashed to bits in quick order.

Now that he saw the beams fired by both sides, Sariel could see (barely, with the assistance of the Agares' HUD) that the Orbite's beams had a much higher velocity than the standard beams fired from the Constantines' and Strategos' rifles, and were tinged marginally blue.

Noting that interesting fact away for a later discussion with the MS mechanics, David charged up the Agare's 'Aniquilar' Hyper-Impulse Beam Cannons. There was a deep thrum vibrating throughout the mobile armor's structure as the vacuums built into the cannon's ionization chambers activated, pulling in vast volumes of the surrounding air before the claw-like weapons closed their separate sections into a more conventional cannon format. Then they fired, twin cohesive beams of glowing blue-and-red plasma.

- The Princess and The Prince -

"Well, guess we're not really needed here." O'Malley mused humorously. Athrun could only agree, as a particularly over-confident Strategos led its team of Constantines forward of their lines towards the barricade, some sort of heavy beam cannon slung under their arms, firing uselessly on the shield-walls before counter-fire from a Tetsujin with an Ettin Plasma weapon in Assault mode, smallish pulses of elongated, oval-shaped plasma beams spattering the anti-beam shields of the forward Constantines until the shields sagged.

By now, Juri had apparently taken notice of the oncoming OMNI suits, and swung her weapon, something that resembled a blockier version of a SCAU's linear assault rifle, and fired a shot at the Strategos. Whatever the weapon fired, it was murderously effective, pretty much disintegrating the MS's torso, leaving the head and limbs to fall forward to the ground. The lesser Constantines were suitably shocked by the demise of their immediate superior, falling quickly in piles of molten metal to the Ettin-armed Tetsujin's relentless assault.

"I sup-" Cagalli was interrupted by a brilliant white-blue beam slashing in from the side to strike the northern-most part of the barricade, the contact point erupting in a brilliant explosion that engulfed the area. Before any of them could react to the sudden attack, they were beset upon by the dark-blue Cimeries Gundam, ridiculously performing enormous 'hops' across the beach towards them.

Introducing it was a barrage of thin bright-blue beams slicing across two of the flying Tetsujin escorts. The lasers did little other than leave glowing veins as the Tetsujin's systems automatically distributed the excess heat, but the hyper-impulse shots that followed overwhelmed them, melting away armor by layers until the underlying endoskeleton was exposed.

Coming in seconds after the laser assault, the Focalor's scythe lashed at O'Malley's Tetsujin, clipping the point of one of the attached Tengu's wings off as the Lieutenant evaded the sweeping strike. The next one in line was less lucky, the Phase-Shifted edge of the polearm separating an arm at the elbow and divesting the Tetsujin of the attached Sylph tri-barreled linear Gatling gun.

Then it came after Cagalli, cameras absorbing the sight of the golden Gundam and scythe arcing about to hack through its midsection.

It never made it, a whip made of superheated, interlocking segments lashing about the forearm on the scythe and yanking hard from behind, stealing the Focalor's momentum and simultaneously turning it about to face the Princeps, the red Gundam prepared to rend the green one to shreds.

-The Beast and the Failure-

**OMNI Enforcer, unknown location**  
** April 22, 71 CE**  
** Timestamp N/A**

"Do the Coordinators think they can cause this massacre and not receive retribution for it!" a Blue Cosmos publicist screamed while he was standing at his podium. As the man ranted on about how coordinators were monsters, abominations, etc; the screen changed to showing hundreds of people in medical facilities receiving emergency care. Then the Cosmonaut went on about the destruction of Joshua and the massacre at Panama; the screen showed anti-coordinator protestors holding up picket screens with the Blue Cosmos symbol, along with racial slurs against coordinators such as "patch worker", "space monster", and "gene freaks".

"We must eliminate the Coordinator scum once and for all! For the preservation of our Blu-"

Mute.

"Well that's one way to get them to shut up." Stated the voice of a figure leaning against the wall of the room with his arms crossed. The room had dim lighting, making it quite dark and casting many shadows. Honestly one could wonder how anyone could possibly prefer to be in a room of perpetual twilight. Still there was enough light coming from the computer console screens for one to see by.

Colonel Cain Eunathas sat in front of the console looking at the scenes with an apathetic expression on his face. The white haired man's eyes looked at the screen as though studying a particularly contagious bacterium.

"Hmph, I agree with you on that." Cain commented as leaned slightly back into his chair and closed his eyes to give them some rest.  
The figure merely grunted and stopped leaning against the wall, then walked towards the console. As he stepped out of the shadows, his appearance became more clear.

He looked to be about 17 years old with long black hair that stopped at the middle of his back, his eyes were a unique mixture of grey and purple. Also despite being in the military, he did not wear a uniform and instead wore more casual black leather clothing including a jacket, trousers, and fingerless gloves.

His name was Ensign Canard Pars, former pilot of the Eurasian Federation's "Special Operatives X" and there were a number of reasons why he wasn't a part of the Special Operative X group anymore. One of which is the fact that the Eurasian Federation's chain of command and military forces in general was more or less thrown into total disarray by the Cyclops system at JOSH-A. Another was that his former superior officer was the now deceased Gerard Garcia, and so the top brass of the Eurasian Federation with a recommendation from a high ranking General decided to transfer Canard to someone far, far more competent than Canard's dead superior, someone like Cain, who despite being in the Atlantic Federation could really care less about the (in his opinion petty) rivalry between both Federations.

"Are people actually buying into this shit?" Canard queried as he leaned forward narrowing his eyes at the clear Blue Cosmos propaganda.

"Yes they are, and honestly it's no surprise to me, after all the ignorant masses always believe what they want to hear. It's been shown many times in elections, military campaigns, and geopolitical crises throughout history. Just shows how pathetic the so called 'common' man can really be." Eunathas responded without even opening up his eyes. The black haired teen merely nodded at the older man's statement, then backed away slightly from the screens. He then walked in front of the desk and gave the wall in front of it a murderous glare as he was thinking about what was frustrating him.

"One thing I want to know is why the hell they didn't send us along with the Watchers for Operation Retribution." Canard growled aggressively. Cain then opened his eyes to look at his "protégé" with a strange mix of amusement and tautness.

"What's wrong? Are those advance combat simulations with Cavalier, Juggernaut, Angelo, and Kuro Tenshi Augury not enough to satisfy you and your Thanatos?" The unnaturally pale white haired Colonel smirked. This caused Canard turn around to glare at his "mentor". Cain then dropped his smirk and met Canard's glare with a cold icy stare.

"I'm serious Cain! Why the fuck didn't they send us with them! Yeah, sure between Abaddon and Thatcher and the G-units under their command it's already freaking over Overkill, but if we were there the whole thing would be over and done with in the blink of an eye!" Cain listened to Canard's statement and then typed in a few sequences on the keyboard of the console bringing up the data of the Grigori, its machines, and a map of the Orb union. This caused Canard to calm down and walk back behind the desk to see the display more clearly.  
"It's because one, Edward is a very skilled, cautious, and capable tactician." "Two, while you're right on the fact that all of us being present would be as you put it "overkill", the problem is having us on the same ship and battlefield would cause…complications which I will not go into right now. Finally, you and I have other important business to tend to." Cain stated calmly. Canard listened carefully at the Colonel's statement then he reluctantly nodded grudgingly accepting the reason why they had not participated in the Operation. The ensign then stared at the map of the Orb Union for about a minute then turned his head to Cain.

"So how is it going anyway?" Canard asked curiously.

"Our forces have lost about 17% of the invasion fleet" Cain stated. This caused the failed Ultimate Coordinator to widen his eyes in surprise. Honestly if anyone else had told him that he would have said "you're fucking kidding me", but Canard knew Cain long enough to know that the Colonel never joked about such things.

"Wow, never thought a small nation like that could do something that quick"

"The Orb Union has a number of advantages and disadvantages" Cain explained then continued "For example it has the Morgenroete Conglomerate and its partners and subsidiaries, an extremely capable and successful military research and development company, and an expert mass-production firm, making Azrael Industries, Maius Military Industries, the Asimov Design Bureau, and even Acteon Industries second in the world compared to them. It has the blessing of a well-developed industrial base in its space colonies. Another advantage is its main leader, Uzumi Nara Attha and his loyalists/supporters, have more than enough experience in these types of situations. Also it has very skilled pilots such as the pseudo coordinator Jack Kagizaki, the former members of the Le Creseut team, and last, but certainly not least Kira Yamato." Cain noticed that Canard's teeth gritted and his fist tightened in anger at the mere mention of that boy's name.

"Its disadvantages are the fact that it is a small nation with a relatively small population base, and because of its neutrality it has very little in the way of allies. That said it's most major and severe competent threat is the Watchers." Cain changed the scene to the Grigori and its mobile suits. "First of all is the Grigori, whose fire power is rivaled only by the Barachiel and probably by Orb's Neo-Izumo class ships in space. Next are Thatcher and his Strategos team along with their advanced equipment packs to increase the power and utility of their MS. One also cannot discount David Sariel as a mere intelligence officer, especially with the Agares Mobile Armor at his fingers. Finally there are their Gundams, which have an amazing degree of raw power and speed, especially in the hands of the top four First-Generation Extendeds of Lodina, among them the Samyaza, whose abilities have not been fully shown to the enemy as yet, the Repulse and the Outlaw, and finally the most dangerous of all of them. The Azazel, and its pilot." Cain finished.  
Canard looked over the data on the screen, especially the BCPU Gundams and the intimidating Azazel. Too Bad for them that somewhere and entity equivalent to a god in their eyes was laughing at their ignorance.

"So what's the other important "business" need to be taken care of?" The former special operative asked.

"An attack on Victoria." Cain stated with a small dark smirk. Canard responded with a feral grin. Victoria was where a large majority of ZAFT's earth forces were stationed. This was going to be fun!

- The Author -

Alright. I hate to post this without whatever else Velshard wanted to add, but it's been a few months since I last heard from him...so yeh...

My future looks promising yet. I'm trying to go to Full Sail University for the Game Design program, so hopefully I'll be in college by Fall.

Also, I kind of need help with something else. Last year, I encountered this website...it has..._engulfed_ me. I can't go a day without perusing it. I've even edited it a little (if just to self-advertise my stories here.) So I gotta ask any other Tropers out there, reading this: Is there like, a support group or something? This thing is ruining my life!

EDIT: I just heard back from Velshard. It seems that...well...it's not really my place to say but he's had some seriously _bad shit_ happen to him...and...just...man...I hope the rest of you join me in wishing him well. He sent me a modified chapter, so I've gone and updated it with his additions as well as one of 00virtuezero's scenes I forgot to add in.

Knightmare Gundam of Ni


	60. Sorry

Sorry

Alright, I'm calling it.

This Story Is Dead.

When I started writing this story – actually, when I started writing on period, I'd hoped that I'd never do this. But, I have to face the music.

I wrote this story with the intention of making a 'Dark' Kira with what I saw as a more 'realistic' view on warfare and combat, with none of that wishy-washy 'don't shoot the cockpit' nonsense seen throughout the latter half of Gundam Seed and most of Gundam Seed Destiny. Quite simply, a 'soldier' rather than a hero, in the vein of Heero Yuy from Gundam Wing and Sousuke Sagara from Full Metal Panic, that would eventually evolve into a personality similar to Crisis Core-era Sephiroth. A cold, ruthless personality with massive psychological issues, that nonetheless works for the overall betterment of the world. Of course, between my inexperience at writing and the lack of time, I doubt this was sufficiently portrayed, but, well, hindsight.

Through the course of this story, I'd hoped to develop my writing style and expertise – something I guess I more or less accomplished, but not to the extent I'd hoped. I also, used this story to refine my mechanical design skills, writing out profiles for mobile suits, mobile armors, warships, and even power armor. While I originally planned to do this for all three factions by myself, Velshard actually stepped up and wrote his own MS profiles, first with the Noctoraptor and Ferox, but eventually expanded to the entirety of ZAFT's mobile forces and even the single mass-production mobile suit for Orb.

In retrospect, this was probably a mistake. I mean no insult to Velshard though – his designs are remarkably detailed and extensively researched (as I'm sure most of you who've seen them can attest), and I managed to keep up with him throughout his continued additions to ZAFT's repertoire…until the Tetsujin.

God, the Tetsujin.

Frigging things' are Gundams in their own right. He and I agreed that it was plain criminal how the Astrays in canon went down so easily, considering their exact Gundam head-designs (Hell, even the B Gundam – a Ball with a makeshift Gundam faceplate attached to its front – did so well that it frigging scared the pants of Zeon pilots all around Solomon into thinking there was a thirty-meter Gundam flying about.). The Tetsujin went a bit too far in my opinion. So far that I honestly still can't see any way for them to actually lose to even my Gundam designs without plentiful application of positron blaster weapons.

I'd intended for the Big Battle of Orb to be covered with three chapters, each taking maybe a month long to write, at the most, written and posted one after the other. The Tetsujin threw all that off. Without being able to _see_ how they took damage, how they died, I couldn't write the battle the way I intended, so I actually relied on Velshard here, pretty much making him a cowriter.

With the latest chapter though, he's had real-life issues, and I just sat at the computer, staring at the Word file on the screen. I'd hoped, with Gundam Unicorn and Gundam AGE, that some new, fresh material would inspire me.

Nope.

Ah well. I supposed I'll do something I've seen some other authors do – leave a summary.

In short, the final act of the Big Battle of Orb would see most of the Orb Islands evacuated – the citizens dispatched to secret island shelters, allied nations and sent into space for colonies like Heliopolis, while remaining armed forces held off the last, concentrated push of OMNI Enforcer units. At this point, Kira's new Gundam would reveal itself. The Agrona would devastate the Earth Alliance mobile suits, until Edward Abaddon, my OC, would launch in his recently-completed Azazel, a Gundam designed expressly for use against Kira. They would clash – Kira's thirst for revenge against OMNI Enforcer and Blue Cosmos, versus Abaddon's vendetta. However, Liene – one of Velshard's donated OCs – would intervene, and through the typical mid-battle chatter, new information would come to light that pegged Liene's mother as Edward Abaddon's long-lost sister.

A bit of a cliché, I know.

This would induce Abaddon and the majority of his 'Watcher' unit to defect to Orb – since they didn't particularly like the idiots that Blue Cosmos is sneaking into the Earth Alliance's command structure (see: Muruta Azrael). And then, they'd issue a fighting retreat to the Mass Driver that, as in canon, was set with a metric ton of explosive ordnance. Escaping into space, they would leave with Orb flaming as Uzumi Nara-Athha and his cabinet detonated the charges set all around the prime strategic points in Orb. In space, Orb's remnant military would regroup, and ally with the newly-created Loyalist-Integrated Neo-Coalition led by the ZAFT defectors and Siegel Clyne agains the dual xenophobic threats of a Blue Cosmos-led Earth Alliance and Patrick Zala's ZAFT.

From the Earth Alliance's Space Forces, Muruta Azrael would lead the ship I planned to take the Dominion's place: The Mephistopheles, a blend between the Celestial-Class that the Grigori and Barachiel/Uriel were a part of, and the Berial-Class Mobile Fortresses, carrying the BCPU-piloted Gundams and an enormous host of mass-production MS – as well as a Macross Missile Massacre of nukes equipped with Neutron Jammer Cancelers, courtesy of Rau Le Creuset, who in turn was overseeing the development of his own Gundam and the eventual deployment of GENESIS.

This, as in canon, would come to a head in front of the PLANTS. Three forces would collide – the numerically superior but technologically inferior OMNI Enforcer; the numerically inferior but technologically superior Orb/LINC alliance; and the middle-of-the-path ZAFT. The fight would have been epic – the BCPUs would have been torn apart by coordinated flights of Tetsujins and/or ZAFT MS, the Mephistopheles would have been out-maneuvered by the Uriel and the Grigori, and GENESIS would be deployed against both sides without remorse. Kira would fight Rau, and Athrun would go to confront his father with a force of LINC MS and a SpecOpsIntel infantry team.

Kira and Rau would trade beams, sabers, and words, Rau extolling his hatred of humanity – and knowledge of two factions manipulating the scene behind the entire Bloody Valentine War, that led to his creation…and Kira's. He would compare the entire conflict to an enormous and convulated chess match between two master players, before declaring that 'if this pawn could not be a player, then he would throw away the board', referring to his plan to destroy the Earth ecologically, and the human race with it, at the same time revealing just how much of the war was a result of his own manipulations, enraging Kira.

Athrun, after dealing with his father, would race to deal with GENESIS – however, unlike in canon, Cagalli would be on the front lines of the battle, leading the Orb forces, and thus, he would be left with his Gundam to self-destruct inside the super-weapon.

The final, weakened blast would be fired into the battlefield of Kira and Rau – and Kira would hold Rau in his damaged Gundam inside the blast zone.

Later, after the battle, Kira would be discovered by Jack, almost dead of radiation burns and poisoning, and resulting in Jack having to take 'drastic measures'.

And there the story would end, with Athrun 'dead', Kira changed and the world in general in just as big a mess as it was before. All set for a sequel to start wrapping things up.

Related technical profiles:

**XSBF-000**

_Agrona_

Pilot: Kira Yamato

Unit Type: Prototype High-Mobility All-Range Assault Mobile Suit

Manufacturers: Morgenroete, Inc  
Huynh Industries

Operator: Orb (Special Operations and Intelligence)

Height: 20.9 Meters

Weight: 102.92 Metric Tons

Armor Materials: Electroactive Titanium/Osmium/Divinium Metal Matrix Composite laced with nanotubes  
Monocrystalline Titanium-Osmium/Hyperdiamond/Boron Nitride Over-Plating laced with nanotubes

Power Source: 1 x Ultra-Compact Nuclear Fission Reactor  
2 x Nuclear Fusion Micro-Engines

Propulsion: 2 x Large Pulsed Inductive Ion Thrusters (Backpack - Central Area)  
10 x Small Pulsed Inductive Ion Verniers (Backpack - Either Side)  
6 x Fusion Plasma SCRamjet Boosters (Wing Binders - Sides)  
2 x Nuclear Fusion Micro-Engines (Wing Binders - Central)  
2 x Monopolar Magnetic Repulsor Drives (Legs)  
Magnetic Colloid Sail system

Operating System: Generation Ultimate Nuclear-powered Dynamic Assault Module

Special Systems: SAMBAC  
Mirage Colloid particle dispersal System  
SCAI-Net

Equipment and Design Features: N-Jammer Canceler  
Omni-Spectrum Cameras  
High-Density Phase Shift Armor  
EWACS  
Nanomachine repair system  
Mobile Weapons Platform/Ejection System  
2 x Dual-Function Frequency-Agile CLIDAR (Camera LIght Distance and Ranging) Sensor Systems  
Multiple Nanotech Adapter/Magnetic Adhesive Points  
Gundanite Endoskeleton (Graphite, Monocrystalline Osmium, Monocrystalline Titanium Carbon Nitride, Ruthenium Silicon Carbide, Gamma Titanium Alloy(81% Titanium, 10% Divinium, 5% Aluminum, 4% Vanadium))

Fixed Armaments: 2 x "Helios" 10mm Hyper-Beam CIWS  
1 x "Lucifer" 250mm Dual-Barrel Fusion Plasma Beam Assault Cannon/Fusion Plasma Beam Launcher

Hand Armaments: 1 x XHBS-2F1 'Sephiroth' Fusion Hyper-Beam Sword  
1 x Anti-Beam Shield/ "Kamikaze II" 100mm dual-barrel Linear Cannon  
1 x "Jove" 25mm Modular Hyper-Beam Rifle

Bio: Created by combining the genius of both Morgenroete's mechanical engineers and Kira Yamato, the Agrona is a gross example of over-engineering. Using data from Siegel Clyne and his supporters, Morgenroete created three nuclear-powered Gundams for the use of both ZAFT and Orb against the Earth Alliance. The Agrona is the first, and possibly, the most advanced of this trio.  
Based on combat data from all of the G Units, as well as data provided by ZAFT from its own mobile suit tests and from Morgenroete's mass-production model tests, the Agrona, Magatama and Principes are all effective combinations of Orb and ZAFT designs, with some of the Earth Alliances' technology thrown in as a bonus.

The Agrona's cockpit system is a fusion of the G-Project Gundam's and the new Tetsujin's. It's mainly a version of the latter that retains some of the properties of the former, mainly in the fact that the cockpit entrance is in the same location as previous Gundams and mass-production suits. Also, the Agrona's cockpit does not have an ejection system in the traditional sense. Due in part to Jack's notorious dislike of anything resembling normal ejection seats/pods and lifeboats, and in part to the expense of the Second Stage units, a special ejection system was designed for the Gundams. In the case of the Magatama, the Principes, and the Agrona, the ejection system consists primarily of building the unit in two primary parts: The main body, consisting of exterior torso, head, and limbs, and the backpack module/MWP/cockpit.  
For the most part, the two parts could be considered to be a single unit, as nano-lathed connections hold it together. However, should the Gundam fail or be irreparably damaged in some way, the nano-deconstruct system is activated. The nanomachines destroy the connections and the backpack/cockpit detach from the rest of the unit. At this time, any and all hand-held weapons are detached from the unit and the backpack retrieves them with grappling components similar to the Tengu's cockpit retrieval systems.  
At this point, the backpack is now considered to be a Mobile Weapons Platform, capable of using its parent unit's hand armaments as fixed weaponry and independent movement, although it's recommended that the pilot retreat from the battlespace at high speed rather than engage in combat. Like the Tengu, the MWP is trans-atmospheric-capable.  
This saves most of the internal systems and control mechanisms, the reactors, the N-Jammer Cancelers, and lastly the pilot.

Regarding the Agrona itself, the Gundam is technically an experimental technology test platform developed independent of either the Orb/OMNI G-Project or Orb's Project Shuurajou. Examples of this are the Femtotech-modified neo-alloys used in the primary energy systems, the nuclear propulsion systems, the MagCol Sail, and the Quantum Crystal-based cockpit armor.

Whereas both the Magatama and the Principes, Agrona's sister units, are powered only by an Ultra-Compact Nuclear Reactor, Agrona also has access to two of Orb's experimental Nuclear Fusion Micro-Engines, which both boost speed and supply energy. Also, the plasma produced by the nuclear fusion reactions is denser and more energetic and is used in place of normal plasma for its more destructive weapons. The Fusion Micro-Engines use ambient particles, either gases in atmosphere or solar winds in space, to supply its fusion reactions with material. It accomplishes this by using powerful magnetic fields to collect, ionize and then compress the material in question. However, as most materials cannot stand the heat of a fusion reaction, the internal structures of the Agrona's Micro-Engines are made of a special new Phase-Shift Armor developed by Morgenroete, dubbed Hyper-Phase Shift Armor. The difference between the two is that the HPS Armor is altered on a Femtotech-level to be nigh-indestructible, allowing it to withstand the ridiculous heat of fusion, albeit not for extreme durations. Thus, the Fusion Micro-Engines operate intermittently during the Agrona's active combat operation; in short 'heart-beat' pulses about fifteen seconds apart.

Instead of the electrostatic plasma thrusters used by most modern vehicles, the Agrona uses new Pulsed Inductive Ion Thrusters, which give it better energy efficiency, allowing for greater thrust for a similar amount of power. With the assistance of plasma-based supersonic combustion ramjets, this allows the Agrona to literally reach escape velocities on its own. The SCRamjets are mounted on the 'wings' that also contain the fusion micro-engines. This placement, in conjunction with traditional thrust vectoring, allows the Agrona ridiculous maneuverability.

Instead of the standard AMBAC system, the Agrona uses the Noctoraptor's SAMBAC system although it uses its wings in place of the Noctoraptor's binders as the extra 'limbs'.

Most of the Agrona's armaments are basically upgraded and otherwise modified versions of the Augury's weapons, along with a few new ones derived from the other Gundam's weapons. The old Igellstellung CIWS have been replaced by the 'Helios' 10mm beam CIWS guns. The "Kamikaze" Linear Cannon from the Kuro Tenshi pack has been upgraded, firing smaller rounds at even higher speeds, and possessing new ordnance, including the Induced Gamma Emission Fusion Shell (IGEFS), Orb's counterpoint to OMNI's HALC-delivered Deuterium Fusion Shells.

Replacing the old beam sabers are a weapon unique to the Agrona itself. Named after a legendary, angelic figure that wielded an enormous katana, the Sephiroth Fusion Hyper-Beam Sword is a month-old proof-of-concept model produced from blueprints and designs in turned developed by proposed enhancements to the XHBS-1 model (which would later become the Tetsujin's standard Hyper-Beam Tsurugi). As its name aptly states, the Sephiroth is powered by fusion, and utilizes high-density/energy plasma derived from it. In order to use it though, 72% of the Sephiroth is composed of a version of High-Energy Phase Shift and has a significantly longer hilt than the HBT used by the Tetsujin. The blade itself is significantly longer than any previously developed beam saber (earning the Sephiroth the distinction of being the first hyper-beam sword) due in part to the dangers of condensed fusion plasma, and in part to make use of said density for greater damage potential and reach.  
Upon activation of the blade, the heat in the area almost immediately (almost .32 seconds, in a volume of 300 cubic meters according to Arturia) rises to levels too high for an unprotected human to bear safely, even more so the closer one is to the activated Sephiroth. Tests indicate that the blade doesn't even have to touch something to damage it, with a distance of a quarter of a meter before standard mobile suit armor starts melting into slag. The radiation output alone is ridiculous, damaging fine sensors and severely obfuscating any electromagnetic radiation-based sensors or cameras input. The only reason one can even look at the Sephiroth is that it's not an active fusion source.  
Like most of Orb's Gundam's weapons, the Sephiroth has variable output, being able to modulate its plasma output to assume any blade length from dagger-like to its standard Big Fucking Sword-length.  
The energy and plasma required for the Sephiroth to operate is supplied by a conduit attached to the lower-right side of the Agrona's backpack module, drawing excess heavy plasma from both of the Agrona's Fusion Micro-Engines. In order to do so safely, the conduit itself is lined on the inside by small plates of High-Energy Phase-Shift armor.

A new weapon is the "Jove" Variable Hyper-Beam Rifles. Each Jove is approximately nine meters long and has a barrel width of 25 millimeters. Most of the rifle is constructed of relatively lightweight yet hardened femto-ceramic composites, while the primary mechanisms are constructed of Divinium-based alloys. In shape, the Joves are primarily rectangular in shape, with the barrel being a smaller rectangle capable of receding into the main body. The Jove is essentially the same in operation as the Karasawa Mk.I Hyper-Beam Rifle. However, the Joves can modulate their beam output, similar to the XGAT-133E's Muspellheim Rifle. The three modes vary in beam density, velocity, heat, and firing rate. These modes include the 'SMG' mode, where a full third of the Joves' four-meter barrels recede into the body and the beams are fairly weak, low density and low-velocity relative to the old '57 standard' beam rifle. At half of the barrels' length, 'Rifle' mode is more comparable to 57 Standard, with a moderate density and velocity, but with a significant upswing in heat and mass compared to SMG mode. 'Sniper' mode is basically the exact same as the Karasawa's beams, except far more dense and set for long-ranges or use against heavy armor.  
The two Jove rifles also have a special feature built into them, one of Jack's contributions. By incorporating special nano-adaptive connection ports on the bottom of the main body and the top of the stock, the Joves can be connected to share energy and plasma, allowing for increased performance. The barrel of one Jove fully recedes, and the rifle is connected to the stock of the other rifle. The receded rifle is then analogous to an enormous capacitor, as the fire control systems and targeting systems of the host rifle are used, with the result of the combination resembling a bullpup weapon. Jack also made an addendum to the rifle control systems that relabels each of the Jove's three operating settings to match this combined mode, relabeling 'SMG' as 'LMG', 'Rifle' as 'Buster Rifle' and 'Sniper' as 'Sniper Cannon'.  
Accordingly, the beam density and firing rate of each mode is squared, while the mass and velocity of each beam is only doubled relative to its original settings.  
When not in use, the Joves are stored on either hip on NAMA points with barrels fully receded.

The "Lucifer" 250mm Dual-Barrel Fusion Plasma Beam Assault Cannon is derived from the Juggernaut pack's "Ares" high-impulse Beam Cannons in form, while functionally similar to the Shuurajou Ettin dual-barrel Plasma Beam Assault Cannon/Ultra High Density Plasma Beam Launcher, with one exception. It uses the fusion-derived plasma produced by the nuclear fusion engines. As such, the beams it fire are far more powerful, reckoned to be able to annihilate a 2-meter square area of the Barachiel's armor with one direct hit. Due to the combination of gamma radiation generated with the positron-electron reactions in the fusion plasma, and the sheer energy generated by the continuous reactions, the Lucifer is quite literally able to penetrate any and all armor. Mounted along the Agrona's waist, the Lucifer is able to quickly fold and telescope out, almost instantly ready for firing. Similar to the Jove, the Lucifer's beam output is also changeable, causing the level of destruction to range from anti-mobile suit to 'siege'. The Lucifer can also utilize fusion-derived positrons instead of plasma, drastically increasing the damage of its strike at the cost of severely reduced range due to the fact that, at ranges exceeding 20 meters, the all the positrons in the blast have already reacted with the atmospheric matter, causing a positron-firing Lucifer to act as an enormous 'shotgun', weakening the containment fields to allow a more spread-out beam. When in use, the Lucifer swings to either side around the hip to be held by the hand, while in storage it splits along the barrels and folds along either thigh.

The Agrona's endoskeletal structure is based on that of humans, and is constructed of a new material developed personally by Mr. Huynh, CEO of the family-owned Huynh Industries, called Gundanite. Gundanite, named for the Gundams, is a Hybrid Hyperalloy Superlattice, and consists of, Graphite, Monocrystalline Osmium, Monocrystalline Titanium Carbon Nitride, Ruthenium Silicon Carbide, and a new Gamma Titanium Alloy. All of these materials are in layers measuring 600-200 nanometers in width, and are further mechanically compressed in an artificially created high-gravity environment. The various materials created a sturdy and heat-resistant structure, and are afterwards implanted with 6th-generation nanomachine factories. The nanomachines create gaps in the Gundanite and construct various mechanisms and generate various substances in these 'cells', each of which are hexagonal in shape. The nature of Gundanite and the somewhat hollow construction give the Agrona a lighter weight than if it were constructed of normal materials.  
Most of the cells are filled with the same items that the Tetsujin's cells have, excepting that the outer cells are filled with Mirage Colloid particles at such high densities that the gas has condensed into a liquid. Upon the breaching of a 'Liquid' Colloid cell, the pressure and heat causes the particles to literally erupt, almost like blood from a human artery. The chief effect of this is an EMP-like effect in the immediate vicinity that disrupts unshielded electronics and causes an artificial blooming effect, drastically reducing the effectiveness of photon and beam weaponry. On physical projectiles, the EMP effect is a countering force that overpowers its own initial acceleration by a factor of ten (for gunpowder-propelled bullets) or two (for standard linear rounds), deflecting the round in either case. The Liquid Colloid reverts to its gaseous state without the continuous pressure, causing it to have the usual light-bending properties, and giving the Agrona a temporary cover under which it can hide, in anticipation of a follow-up strike, or in preparation for a counter-attack.

The Agrona's exterior armor is made of an alloy derived from an entirely new artificial metallic element, dubbed Divinium. From a military viewpoint, Divinium is the perfect metal, possessing a hardness rivaling heterodiamonds, flexibility similar to most cermets, and is a room-temperature superconductor. All of this, however, is off-set by the fact that Divinium also has a fatal reaction with most common gases, causing a corrosion that reduces the expensive element to dust. As such, in order to be useful, Divinium is only used in alloys, matrices and cermets. The metal matrix used in the Agrona's Phase-Shift Armor combines Titanium, Osmium, and Divinium at a ratio of 5-3-1 in a metal matrix composite with amazing flexibility and strength. This somewhat increases the armor's resistance to extreme temperatures, although much less than if pure Divinium could be used.  
Lying over this armor are plates of hardened and condensed Boron Nitride nanomesh, filled with nanoparticles of Osmium and Rhenium, giving it incredible thermal resistance and tensile strength. Woven into both are multi-walled nanotubes of boron-osmium and rhenium carbide, giving it even better resistance against physical weaponry and somewhat better heat dissipation, rendering it able to withstand one or two beams in a single area. However, these nanotubes also contain a ferrofluid consisting of several elements. Inside this fluid are suspended nanomachines, which are also capable of self-propulsion. Magnetic fields created by electric currents on the nanotubes cause the fluid to flow faster than usually allowed by its viscosity. Whenever the armor or other object in which the nanotubes are incorporated into is penetrated, the nanotube is also ruptured, causing some of the fluid to flow outwards. When such an event occurs, the nanomachines begin using the materials in the fluid to repair the damage. As a result of natural magnetic fields, the fluid adheres to the surface, allowing the nanomachines easier repair capability. This feature is shared by the Magatama and Principes as well as the Orb M5 Tetsujin mass-production model.

An interesting side effect of the Divinium is that it reverses the power-color index of the Phase Shift Armor. For example, whereas before extreme high power equaled white color, now it results in black coloring. As such, the Agrona's extremely high power from the Nuclear Fission Reactor results in a mainly black color scheme with gold highlights and silver designs on the 'face'. An unforeseen result of this is the ability to absorb photonic energy to a certain extent, causing the Gundam to appear even darker than normal, giving it a psychological advantage in battlespaces. On the Agrona, its black coloring results in the nanotubes being more visible than normal, causing places where they cross or connect to appear as bright silvery spots. This causes the majority of the Agrona's surface to appear to be similar to the view of space, giving it limited camouflage in space or at night-time. The wings that mount the extra Plasma Verniers and the Fusion Engines are also black, although gold and silver designs give it the appearance of having feathers.

The Agrona's cameras are pitch-black, while the areas surrounding them in a five centimeter radius are pure white. This is due to a new liquid crystal-based nanotechnology developed by Liene. Utilizing a combination of condensed Mirage Colloid particles and high concentrations of both nanomachines and nanocrystals based on Divinium and Hyperdiamond, the LC coating on the cameras absorbs and relays all electromagnetic radiation that contacts it to the cameras, allowing the Omni-Spectrum capabilites. The white LC coating on the area around the cameras is designed to reflect all contacting electromagnetic radiation at the cameras, theoretically allowing the Agrona to see objects outside of its normal field of view.  
The cameras serve as scanners for LIDAR systems based in the Agrona's brows. These LIght Distance and Ranging systems reflect low-energy lasers off of a rotary polycrystalline reflector, with the lasers themselves beamed through an electrically reactive liquid crystal lens. By altering the electric current to the LC lens, the lasers' frequency and wavelength can be altered to any range in the electromagnetic radiation spectrum. Essentially, the Agrona's LIDAR systems bombard the areas it looks at with various frequencies of radio waves, infrared, visible and ultraviolet light, as well as X- and Gamma-rays. Effectively, this allows the Agrona to instantly scan and record numerous details of a given scene and with a record of numerous substances and their respective reactions and reflections of each wavelength of light, the Agrona's LIDAR systems can effectively determine the make-up of a targeted unit's armor, while also obtaining relative distance and speed figures.

A special system devised from the Noctoraptor's Mirage Colloid stealth system mounted in the wings gives the Agrona even better survivability, utilizing a combination of the high electromagnetic radiation emission of the Fusion Micro-Engines and the light-bending properties of Mirage Colloid particles. Instead of collecting the Mirage Colloid particles around the unit for complete optical and sensor stealth, the Agrona propels them out of its verniers, enforcing the appearance of feathery wings and giving false sensor hits, causing most shots to be fired at the area behind the Agrona. By mixing the fusion engine's magnetic fields with the Mirage Colloid particles, the Agrona is also able to temporarily generate an area wherein the plasma that composes beams is split and propelled every which way by the magnetic fields projected by the modified particles, similar to how light is reflected by dust-like motes of reflective material.  
This system also provides the means for a low-energy stealth propulsion system, called by Kira the Magnetic Colloid Sail, or the MagCol Sail for short. In essence, the MagCol Sail uses the Mirage Colloid system in the wings to generate mirage colloid particles, which are then ionized, mixed with the fusion plasma from the Micro-Engines, and produce a miniaturized magnetosphere approximately 20 meters in diameter. By alternating the charge of the field, the Agrona can then descend or ascend without the use of thrusters in the Earth's magnetosphere, allowing greater amounts of energy to horizontal thrusters, which would otherwise be needed for verniers and repulsor drives.  
Outside of the Earth's magnetosphere, the MagCol Sail could instead be used as a typical solar sail, deflecting soar wind particles and generating thrust that way.

**XGAT-401**

_Azazel_

Pilot: Edward Abaddon

Unit Type: Experimental 'Gundam Destroyer' Mobile Suit

Manufacturer: Azrael Industries

Operator: OMNI Enforcer (Watcher Special Operations Division)

Height: 18.6 Meters (Normal Mode)  
20.6 Meters (Destroyer Mode)

Weight: 98.5 Metric Tons

Armor: Ultra-Conductive Neo-Electrum Compressed Alloy (Gold-Titanium)

Power Source: 2 x Compact Capacitors  
1 x Superinsulated Battery

Propulsion: 4 x Large Hydro-Plasma Thrusters  
Pulsed Colloidal Ion Thruster Network  
2 x Monopolar Magnetic Repulsors

Operating System: GENE (Genetic Evaluation Neural Enhancer)-Updated Neuro-Dynamic Assault Machine System

Special Systems: Pathing Calculation Program V.2  
Large-Area Communications/Sensory Link System  
AMBAC

Equipment and Design Features: Trans-Phase Shift Armor  
Low-Friction Joints  
Extensive Heat Sink/Radiator System (Integrated into endoskeletal structure.)  
GeschmeidigPanzer Field Emitter  
'Destroyer' Mode-Shift

Fixed Armaments: 2 x Head-Mounted 75mm Versatile Linear Assault Guns  
2 x Hip-Mounted 'Zeus' Electron Beam Cannons  
1 x Forehead-Mounted Pulsed Tactical High-Energy Laser

Hand Armaments: 1 x 'Leonidas' Beam Assault Rifle/ 'Mercer' High-Energy Beam Sword  
1 x 'Gram' Beam Chain-Sword  
1 x Trans Phase-Shifted MagShield/ 'Sol' Photonic Colloid/Electron Cannon  
4 x Limb-Mounted High-Energy Beam Sabers  
1 x 25mm Positron Blaster Gun

Bio: The fully complete version of the Praetor, the Azazel is the currently most advanced mobile weapon fielded by OMNI Enforcer. Utilizing a multitude of technologies, both the Alliance's various Colloid-based systems, ZAFT's AMBAC, and Orb's Hydro-Plasma Thrusters, the Azazel is designed as an anti-Coordinator unit designed to maximize the experience and abilities of its pilot in its use, allowing experienced and trained Naturals to counter the ingrained abilities of Coordinator-piloted machines. In this, it can be considered OMNI Enforcer's trump card, the counter to any high-performance mobile suit used by either ZAFT or Orb.

The Azazel's Operating System utilizes techniques developed from the BCPU project to enhance the Gundam's reaction speed by partially synchronizing with its pilot's nervous system through the use of an ingested compound containing high amounts of iron and nanomachines designed to temporarily bond with the subjects neurological and muscular systems. This also allows a finer degree of control by the pilot, as the nanomachines read and relay his neural impulses and muscular movements to the Azazel's OS, also resulting in a minor increase in reaction speed. This can, however, backfire in the case of electronic interference as the feed-back can hurt the pilot.

While the Praetor's armor was sufficient for its duties then, it was unfit for a Gundam. Thus, part of the overhaul included replacing the Praetor's armor plating with a Phase-Shift capable alloy called 'Neo-Electrum', which consists mainly of titanium with small amounts of gold and trace amounts of silver and copper, the overall goal of the alloy being to greatly enhance the durability-enhancing effect of the Trans-Phase-Shift Armor. It worked, greatly increasing the physical toughness of the armor relative to normal Phase-Shift Armor for three-fourths the amount of energy normally required for even standard operation. The drawback of this armor is that it's even more vulnerable to directed-energy weaponry, something compensated for by the inclusion of a Geschmeidig Panzer Field Emitter into the armor's systems that allow it to project a powerful EM field for short durations.

An experimental propulsion system designed during the initial stages of the G Project serves as the Azazel's primary propulsion. The Pulsed Colloidal Ion Thruster Network was initially designed to use bursts of Mirage Colloid Gas in a pulsed inductive ion thruster to hide the thrusters' emissions, aiding in the stealth of the mobile suit. However, the technicians were unable to get the Mirage Colloid gas bursts to synchronize with the ion pulses properly, resulting in a wildly fluctuating emission output that drew attention on sensor tests. There were also issues with the Network's thrust-to-weight ratio, since the modifications that allowed the addition of the Mirage Colloid Gas reduced the power of the thrusters, making even the entire network insufficient to propel a mobile suit to combat velocities. Once the full-scale Mirage Colloid system on the Noctoraptor was developed, the Thruster Network was shelved. However, with the recent development of both the Geschmeidig Panzer and Magnetic Repulsor technologies, the Thruster Network was brought back and modified to fit the Azazel.  
In its current iteration, the Pulsed Colloidal Ion Thruster Network uses a mixture of Geschmeidig Panzer and Mirage Colloid Gas (42% and 28% respectively) as an added part to the fuel mixture rather than a secondary additive during the acceleration process. This partially mitigates the thrust-to-weight ratio problems, and also streamlines the overall design, making it take up less space. In testing, this design significantly reduced the emissions readings, although not as much as hoped for during the G Project. However, now the stealth aspect is a tertiary concern, as this iteration of the Thruster Network is instead designed to counter beam and laser weaponry. Due to the scattering of both Geschmeidig Panzer and Mirage Colloid in the Azazel's surroundings by its propulsion system, the effectiveness of directed energy weapons decreases significantly, particle beams being slowed and diffused by the Geschmeidig Panzer while both targeting and weapons-grade lasers are both refracted and diffracted by the Mirage Colloid Gas.  
The addition of Magnetic Repulsors to the Azazel's design allows the Thruster Network much greater results when under the influence of Earth's gravity, each Repulsor reducing the Gundam's weight by about 12%, making it weigh about 76% of its total with the Repulsors active.

The Azazel's fixed weapons include the new 'Zeus' Electron Beam Cannons that fire, obviously, beams of electrons at extreme speeds, which upon contact induce high-voltage electricity, easily capable of disabling mobile weapons or severely damaging a capital ship's electronic systems. By altering the acceleration of the electron beam, the Zeus can either disable a ZONGS temporarily or completely short out the systems of a Nazca-Class Destroyer. Due to the construction of Phase-Shift Armor, the Gundams are even more vulnerable to the Zeus Cannons than normal mobile suits, the conductivity in their armor allowing the electrical currents to do even more damage to their internal systems.  
The Praetor's old Pulsed Medium Energy Laser has been replaced with a repeating quad-barreled Pulsed Tactical High-Energy Laser concentrated in the gamma range. Due to this, it has a significantly greater range than normal lasers, but requires more frequent maintenance due to the quicker degradation of its focusing lenses and other components, a problem compounded by rapid firing.  
Built into the Azazel's head in place of the usual CIWS guns are Azrael Industries newest version of linear weaponry, the Versatile Linear Assault Guns. Designed as the linear counterpart to Gatling Guns, the 'VLAG' use eight superconducting rails combined with ten electromagnetic coils to accelerate 75mm Tungsten-Carbide cored Steel-Jacketed slugs to a maximum muzzle velocity of 450 km/s at a 120 round per minute rate of fire, using all eight rails. Or, it can fire 1,050 rounds per minute at a muzzle velocity of 220 km/s using two rails. The VLAG can operate on any of four different settings, each with its own muzzle velocity and rate of fire, using anywhere from two to eight rails, making it easily adjustable to deal with either light vehicles or armored mobile suits. The version the Azazel uses is the field-test model, if it gets good results, the VLAG may find itself developed for use as a crew-served weapon, ship gun or even developed into a larger mobile suit-carried variant.

The primary hand-wielded weapon remains the Leonidas Beam Assault Rifle and its attached Mercer High Energy Beam Sword, both improved with better magnetic field emitters and high-quality plasma reserves of ionized iron and silver. Magazine-like attachments to the rifle stores the fine iron and silver dust used, which is ionized along with atmospheric gases prior to firing. This results in a better-focused particle beam and higher damage values due to the added mass for both the Leonidas and the Mercer. If the reserves should be exhausted, they can operate in default plasma modes as well.  
New is the Gram, which mounts miniature beam emitters on a chainsaw-like belt and revolves at approximately three times the speed of sound with the aid of new friction-reducing compounds evolved from Teflon. For the most part, the Gram's beam emitters are off-line. They only activate when short-range laser sensors integrated into them detect an object within two meters of them, upon which the beam instantly activate to cut into the offending object in question. These sensors are also tuned to react to the light emanated by active beam sabers.  
One of the Azazel's most interesting weapons is the shield-based Sol cannon. Utilizing new Mirage Colloid technology, the cannon fires a high-density cloud of ionized Mirage Colloid gas and free electrons. The gas refracts and reflects light, absorbing it, and concentrating it in vast amounts, causing it to appear like a storm cloud laced with electricity from the free electron interaction. Upon contact, the extreme thermal energy devastates armor even as the electricity scrambles electronics.  
The same shield that the Sol is based on is a Phase-Shifted model that incorporates a powerful magnetic-field emitting electrode, allowing it to block beams and even slow linear rounds. It can also slice through any non-Phase-Shifted armor.  
The Azazel also has access to the second ever mobile suit-scale positron blaster, which is a handgun-sized weapon. However, as the Azazel is incapable of generating positrons on its own, the Positron Blaster is limited to perhaps ten shots, each only with enough anti-matter to destroy a single mobile weapon, or something of equivalent mass.

The Azazel possesses a transformation similar in concept to the Bastions Beta-mode. The aims, however, are quite different. Rather than enhancing its capabilities in electronic warfare, the Azazel's Destroyer Mode instead heightens the strength of its magnetic fields, increasing thruster propulsion, beam density, and Geschmeidig Panzer operation. Essentially, the Azazel is capable of greater velocity, possesses extreme high-energy beam weaponry, and a nigh-invulnerable defense in this mode. A strange side-effect of this is that when the Azazel makes a great change in velocity, either massively accelerating or rapidly changing direction, the Geschmeidig Panzer/Mirage Colloid Gas exhaust from the Thruster Network tends to react to the over-powered magnetic fields by assuming the Azazel's shape and creating an after-image complete with sensor readings.  
The Destroyer Mode's operation causes multiple components of the Azazel to generate enormous amounts of heat, typically enough to cause most of them to melt-down. Azrael Industries counteracted this by building an extensive network of heat sinks and radiators directly into the Azazel's endoskeletal structure, ensuring that all such components are able to connect to and vent excess heat into them. In order to maximize radiation, the Azazel's armor plating shifts aside to accommodate the radiators, which extend and actually give the Azazel a few more meters of height doing so. It's been observed that, if Destroyer Mode is active for a long time, the radiated heat actually ionizes the atmosphere around the Gundam, making it appear to be wreathed in flames as the suddenly-generated plasma reacts to its powerful magnetic fields.

**SDDGN-011**

_Mephistopheles_

Captain:

Ship Type: Absolute Destruction/Heavy Assault Carrier/Destroyer

Manufacturer: Multiple

Operator: OMNI Enforcer

Dimensions: Length: 2300 Meters  
Beam: 420 Meters  
Depth: 750 Meters

Weight/Displacement: 1,250,000 Metric Tons

Materials: Laminated High-Density Titanium Beryllium Boride Metal Matrix Alloy

Power Source: 2 x Super-Critical Water-Cooled Nuclear Fission Reactors

Propulsion: Many x Electrostatic Plasma Thrusters  
4 x Thermal Nuclear Rockets  
8 x Gravitic Repulsor Drives  
Burst Maneuver Thrust Array

Special Systems: Multi-Phase Radar  
Orbital Positioning System  
Electronic Warning and Control System  
4 x Geschmeidig Panser Emission/Control Systems

Equipment and Design Features: 6 x N-Jammer Canceler  
20 x Mobile Drone Scouts  
Layered/Laminated Hull  
Hyper-Coolant System

Min/Max Crew: 1,500,000/3,000,000

Capacity: 500 x Mobile Suits  
1000 x Mobile Armor

Primary Armaments: 1 x 1200-Meter 'Peregrine' Hyper-Accelerated Linear Cannon  
1 x 1200-Meter 'Iblis' Positron Cannon  
1 x 600-Meter Magnetic Launcher

Secondary Armaments: 120 x 100cm Twin Beam Cannons  
250 x 50cm High-Velocity Linear Autocannons  
20 x Torpedo Launchers  
100 x 20-tube Missile Launchers

Tertiary Armaments: 300 x Linear Repeaters  
150 x Pulse Laser Turrets

Bio: A resurrection of the now-defunct Berial-Class warship, originally fielded against ZAFT in the opening shots of the war, the Mephistopheles is nothing less than a mobile asteroid hulk. Built with the desiccated remains of the remaining two Berials and a large amount of spare metal from the Debris Belt, the Mephistopheles incorporates parts and technology from multiple companies, including some stolen from ZAFT and Orb.

The main armaments are the over a kilometer-long 'Peregrine' Hyper-Accelerated Linear Cannon, improved with ZAFT-derived electromagnets and capacitors. As a result, the solid bronze/depleted uranium projectiles that it fires are accelerated to almost 175% higher speeds than the Berial's main armament. Under that is the Iblis-class Positron Cannon, essentially a much larger version of the ones mounted on the Celestial-Class assault carriers, with the ability to manipulate its magnetic fields to fire a burst of positrons in a shotgun-like spread of small concentrated particle pulses.. The last is a 600-meter Magnetic Launcher, used to fire various self-propelled ordnance, such as large nuclear warheads, from long distances.  
Its secondary weapons are just as deadly in their own right. One-hundred twenty dual-barreled beam cannons utilizing Drake's new magnetic bottling technology populate the hull on the Mephistopheles lateral lines, serving as broadsides. Drake's new tech gives the beams a greater focus and beam density as well as a higher firing rate, allowing them to more easily pierce armor and lay down a spread of fire. Two hundred High-Velocity Linear Autocannons are spread across the dorsal and ventral surfaces, with an extra fifty on the bow. One-hundred standard-sized missile launchers, twenty tubes each, are placed alongside the beam cannons to give them optimal coverage. On the front dorsal surface are twenty torpedo launchers, loaded with various warheads.  
For close-in defense, the Mephistopheles is equipped with a total of four hundred fifty CIWS guns, 300 linear repeaters and 150 pulse laser turrets, all scattered across the hull in various concentrations, surprisingly with the highest turret density around the engines and thrusters.

The Mephistopheles outer hull consists of several layers of a high-density Titanium Boride alloyed with Beryllium made in a Lagrange 2 facility, alternating each layer with a high-pressure xerogel consisting of ferro-silicates and mixed with Colloid particles. As a result, the Mephistopheles can take several hits from HAL or Hyper-Beam weapons in any single spot, with the initial layer of laminated armor dispersing beams across the entire surface or deflecting solid projectiles off of their angular surfaces. Even after a layer of armor has been melted or smashed to bits, the gel layer solidifies upon contact with a large amount of kinetic or thermal energy, further protecting the ship.  
The bridge, taking a cue from Orb ship designs, is in the deepest section of the ship, just forward of the nuclear reactors and engines and above the Peregrine and Iblis.

In order to allow the bridge crew to easily view the battlespace, the hull is liberally scattered with cameras under a layer of transparent laminated polymer armor, and also has access to twenty of the new Mobile Drone platforms, essentially semiautomated transatmospheric craft half the size of a Moebius armor outfitted with an array of high-powered cameras and sensor systems, each capable of carrying limited weaponry.

Utilizing ZAFT tech given to them by Rau, OMNI has outfitted the Mephistopheles with four large Nuclear Thermal Rockets, vaguely similar to the Agrona's, only far larger. In order to allow the Mephistopheles greater maneuverability than the Berials, a lacking trait that caused the demise of many of that fearsome destroyer, the hull is also scattered with relatively small thrusters all interconnected to a control system, collectively called the burst maneuver thrust system. This allows the Mephistopheles to literally dodge weapons fire and missiles.

For the MBF-M1 Astray Replacement

Original Mechanical Designer: Velshard

**MBF-MP5 **  
(Mass Production 5)

_Tetsujin _  
(wise man, philosopher, sage)

Pilot: Asagi Caldwell  
Juri Wu Nien  
Mayura Labatt  
Maruoichi  
Kuno  
Kikuchi  
Jean Carrey  
Rondo Ghina Sahaku  
Lowe Guele

Unit Type: Mass Production All Purpose Fighter-Class Mobile Suit

Manufacturer: Morgenroete Armories/Conglomerate

Operators: Orb Union/Orbital Alliance

Height: 19.2 Meters

Weight: 43.85 Metric Tons

Accommodations: Active Dynamic Pilot Interface, room for pilot and passenger

Armor materials: Laminated Hybrid Hyper Alloy Composite

Power Source: 5 x S2 (Super Solenoid) power plant, 4 located in extremities, 1 in torso; 1 x Replaceable Ultra Efficient Nano-cell Battery

Propulsion: 2 x Hybrid Plasma Pulse Jet Engines  
2 x Magnetic Monopolar Repulsor drives  
1 x Miniaturized Pulse Detonation Engine  
many x Plasma Verniers

Operating System: Frequent Update Customizable Metaprogramming Extended

Special Systems: AMBAC  
SCAI-Net (Strategic Command Artificial Intelligence Network)  
AICA (A.I. Combat Assistant)  
NCI (Neural Control Interface)  
ASC (AIRAD Slave Controller)

Equipment and Design Features: Entirely Modular Construction  
Scouting periscope  
Chromatic Surface Camouflage  
External Surface Temperature Matching  
Full NBC (Nuclear Biological & Chemical) Protection System  
Ejection System  
2 x Large Weapon Locks/Storage mounts/Tengu docking units, mounted on backpack  
Many x Nanotech Weapon and Equipment Adapters  
Anti-Personnel Acoustic Defense System  
Combined Tachyon, Bi-Directional Quantum Bitstream, and AM/FM Long and Short Wave Radio Communications System  
Satellite Uplink and Hacking array  
"the Doctor" Metaphase SQUID Mass Energy Detector  
Atmospheric Disturbance Motion Detector  
Advanced Acoustic Detection System  
Active/Passive Sonar Array  
Ground Sonar and Audio Receivers  
Sonar Imager  
3D Optical Sensor Array  
Magnetic Resonance Imaging Camera  
Schlieren Camera  
Enhanced Multi-band Sensor Cluster

Permanent Fixed Armaments: 2 x "Hisame" dual 20mm Hyper-Velocity Gun and Pulse Laser CIWS, mounted in head  
2 x "Mizore" Multi-Launchers, mounted in torso  
2 x "Reiken" 0.75MW Hyper Beam Tsurugi (Chinese straight sword), mounted on hips  
2 x "Juuki" dual mode 25mm Beam pistol/75mm Thermite Plasma Linear Pistol, stored in hip armor along with 2 spare 10-round magazines  
2 x "Kusari" Multi-Purpose Grapple Anchor, mounted in forearms under wrists

Optional Fixed Armaments: "Sylph" 50mm triple barrel linear Gatling gun, mounts to forearms  
"Peryton" 25mm variable hyper beam carbine, mounts to forearm  
"Syakatsura" all-purpose missile launcher using quantum warheads with high tracking and evasion abilities, mounts to various points on body including arms, shoulders, legs, and hips  
"Vega" Anti-PS wrist blade, mounts to forearms  
"Gekko" (AKA Moonlight) 1.8MW Hyper Beam Lance/beam projector, mounts to forearms  
"Jiten" small anti-beam coated hyper alloy shield, can be affixed directly to forearm or over the top of Sylph, Peryton, Vega, and Gekko

Optional Hand Armaments: "Karasawa" MK.I Experimental 50mm open-barrel hyper beam rifle/Anti-PS and Quantum crystalline based thermal thrust sword, hand carried in use, can be stored on dorsal and flank skirt armor hard points  
"Karasawa MK.2" 25mm open-barrel hyper beam rifle/Anti-PS thrust sword, hand carried in use, can be stored on dorsal and flank skirt armor hard points  
"Silky" Experimental 25mm High-density Energy Machinegun, hand carried in use, can be stored on dorsal and flank skirt armor hard points  
"Atekiri" MK.I combined 50mm hyper-velocity machinegun, 200mm quantum grenade launcher, rocket-propelled Reiken beam bayonet, hand carried in use, can be stored on dorsal and flank skirt armor hard points  
"Sepia" MK.I Experimental combined EM Hyper-velocity Shotgun, 25mm Positron Gun, Anti-PS kinetic lance/bayonet, hand carried in use, can be stored on dorsal and flank skirt armor hard points  
"Specter" MK.I Experimental 150mm Hyper Velocity battle rifle, hand carried in use, can be stored on dorsal and flank skirt armor hard points;  
"Wyrm" MK.I 150mm dual mode EM Hyper Velocity/Hyper Beam Sniper Rifle, hand carried in use, can be stored on dorsal skirt armor hard point;  
"Fenrir" MK.I eXperimental Hyper VelocIty ParticlE Rifle (XH-VIPER), hand carried in use, can be stored on dorsal skirt armor hard point;  
"Ettin" MK.I 150mm dual-barrel Plasma Beam Assault Cannon/Ultra High Density Plasma Beam Launcher, hand carried in use, can be stored on dorsal skirt armor hard point and large weapon locks;  
"Kyokan" MK.I 300mm dual-mode Baryon Bazooka/Baryon Shot Cannon, hand carried in use, can be stored on dorsal skirt armor hard point and large weapon locks;  
"Fuuoni" MK.I 350mm dual-mode Hyper Bazooka/Gunlauncher, hand carried in use, can be stored on dorsal skirt armor hard point and large weapon locks;  
"Ladon" MK.I 50mm Super Luminal Railgun, hand carried in use, can be stored on dorsal skirt armor hard point and large weapon locks;  
"LeX" MK.I Large Apeture Graser Cannon, hand carried in use, can be stored on dorsal skirt armor hard point and large weapon locks;  
"Roc" Type.1 50mm 5-barrel hyper-velocity Gatling gun, hand carried in use, can be stored on dorsal skirt armor hard point and large weapon locks;  
"Roc" Type.2 25mm 5-barrel hyper beam Gatling gun, hand carried in use, can be stored on dorsal skirt armor hard point and large weapon locks;  
"Kazenenshou" Type.1 3-tube 1030mm Large Missile and Torpedo Launcher, hand carried in use, can be stored on dorsal skirt armor hard point and large weapon locks  
"Kazenenshou" Type.2 12-tube 4-shot 310mm Small Missile and Torpedo Launcher, hand carried in use, can be stored on dorsal skirt armor hard point and large weapon locks  
"Saiga" Anti-PS super oscillating thermal katana(long sword), hand carried in use, mounts to dorsal and flank skirt armor inside a protective scabbard  
"Kenga" Anti-PS super oscillating thermal wakizashi(short sword), hand carried in use, mounts to dorsal and flank skirt armor inside a protective scabbard  
"Elren" 1.6MW Large Hyper Beam Zanbatou(helm cleaver), hand carried in use, mounts to dorsal and flank skirt armor inside a protective scabbard  
"Taros" Experimental Anti-PS and quantum Crystalline based twin sided hyper beam Flamberge(similar to broad sword), hand carried in use, mounts to dorsal and flank skirt armor inside a protective scabbard  
"Katen" Anti-beam coated Hyper Alloy composite expanding armed shield, 1 x 175mm Multi-purpose Gunlauncher, 1 x 25mm variable hyper beam carbine, 1 x Anti-PS retractable sword, hand carried and or attached directly to forearm

Bio: The MBF-MP5 (Mass Production 5) Tetsujin is based off of the MBF-AP(Advanced Prototype)00 through MBF-AP04, which were the first units created as part of Project Shuurajou and are the progenitors to all of Orb's future MS series. Project Shuurajou was created with the help of the Sahaku family and the military support of Orb's Major General Andrew Victor "Vicious" Payne, who is in charge of all of Orb's spec ops divisions. The word Shuurajou itself was coined by Andrew Payne, it almost literally translates from the cryptographic language of Japanese as "A place of Slaughter".

Soon after the debut of ZAFT's MS and their incredible fighting ability, Andrew and the heads of the Sahaku family set out to acquire all the information and technology on ZAFT's MS and the EA's own MS through any means necessary. In ZAFT's case they used both spies, that they already had in the PLANTs, while also spending a significant amounts of money on mercenaries to capture one each of all of ZAFT's latest MS intact. In the EA's case things were much easier, thanks in part to the EA's intelligence weenies stupidity and Orb's own operatives' skills. Additionally, getting the EA to agree to develop their prototype MS at Heliopolis and allow Orb's own engineers to "Observe and Assist" in the machines creation was a significant boon.

The Tetsujin is quite literally 4-5 decades ahead of every other mass production MS in existence in terms of technology, complexity, and construction quality. This was necessary due to Orb's strategic and political position, requiring a very big stick to ward off any potential threats. That being said, the Tetsujin's development was so secret and misinformation campaign so good, that upon it's first en masse combat debut against OMNI's numerically superior forces, Orb all but massacred every enemy unit they encountered, in what many referred to as an "utterly humiliating, one-sided butt kicking fiasco".

The unit was jointly designed by Morgenroete Engineers Erica Simmons and Liene Van Dalgyon, with assistance from Coordinator and OMNI defector Jean Carry. As well as Junk Guild Engineer Ai Orikasa, better known to most as "The Professor", an old friend of Erica Simmons, who agreed to help with the unit in return for "special services" from Orb.

Starting at the Superstructure is where the first of many technological innovations in the Tetsujin begins, instead of having a traditional frame/chassis, the Tetsujin's superstructure is more akin to a living animal's endoskeleton. More specifically a Raptor's, it's legs and feet are in fact non-humanoid and are designed similarly to the infamous prehistoric predator's. This leg design actually gives the Tetsujin many advantages in terms of top running speed, jumping ability and shock absorption from landing. Conceivably the unit can survive any landing without receiving any structural damage, even when hitting the ground at its maximum Terminal Velocity without using its boosters to dampen the landing shock. Additionally the unit's bird like feet, with two long multi-jointed toes on the front of each foot with two shorter ones on the back, and each ending in laser sharpened Carbon Nitride talons, give the unit an incredible degree of balance and traction when moving. Another bonus to this design is that the opposable nature of it's feet give it the ability to actually grab and hold objects in a similar fashion to an arboreal animal's foot.

The Tetsujin's endoskeleton is mostly hollow, consisting of a series of hexagonal cells made from a Metal Matrix Composite (MMC) of Monocrystaline Titanium interspersed with Boron Nitride Nanorods at the Micrometer scale. This gives the Tetsujin's superstructure tensile strength, mechanical ruggedness and thermal resistance second only to its armor, while still having enough elasticity to withstand an absurd amount of kinetic shock.

Each of these cells can contain a variety of different substances or equipment, primarily they contain either a highly viscous thermally retardant smart-fluid or one of the many negative-ion lasers that the Tetsujin uses as it's main means of temperature regulation. The smart-fluid has several functions, aside from acting as an insulator, it also helps to absorb and dissipate energy from kinetic shock but primarily it is meant as a defense against beam sabers. In order to prevent an appendage from being severed or to keep the unit's torso from being bisected, this smart fluid will quickly flood the affected area to buy a few precious instants for the Tetsujin to escape serious damage. However in the event a limb is severed, this smart-fluid will usually bridge the gap between the severed appendage and then harden into a polycrystalline structure quickly enough that the limb won't be lost, making Nanotech reconstruction faster.

The negative-ion lasers can cool substances down to near absolute zero degrees Kelvin if necessity demands but primarily they are just meant to cool the Tetsujin's S2 power plants and it's frictionless linear joints as well as acting as heat sinks for its armor.

The Tetsujin's joints are never in actual physical contact with each other, using electromagnets, the joints are effectively frictionless. Being both held together by and slightly separated by this electromagnetism in a similar fashion to a linear gun or a maglev train. Another important point to keep in mind is that Tetsujins are effectively double-jointed and can achieve feats of agility and flexibility unsurpassable by most MS.

The next innovation in the Tetsujin's design is its main means of motive movement, lacing most of the superstructure is dense bundles of an electrically reactive synthetic polymer that expands or contracts depending on the amount of current being fed to it. These are in essence synthetic muscles and are one of the reasons for the Tetsujin's incredible performance values, giving it a power to weight ratio of more than 6:1 comparable to most MS which rarely have power to weight ratios of 2:1. To put this in perspective the Tetsujin can lift an overhead weight of 185 metric tonnes, almost 204 short tons, which to some may seem absolutely absurd but it effectively makes the Tetsujin the body builder of the MS world, at least temporarily. Thanks to these and it's incredible OS, the Tetsujin can jump more than 7 times its own height from a standing start where most MS can barely manage half their own height. Over optimal terrain the unit can also run at a top speed in excess of 500 Km/h (310mph), completely outstripping the top speed of ZAFT's GAHMU. The greatest bonus in these synthetic muscles though is energy conservation, while the servos, actuators, and hydraulics of most MS are a significant bleed on power. The Tetsujin's muscles by comparison only have to exchange the charge between one group of muscles and another to move, equaling an absolute minimum drain on power due to thermal and electromagnetic ambient bleed off. One final bonus to having Synthetic muscles is their ability to act like cushions for absorbing and dissipating shock either from landing or more probably from being hit with kinetic weapons/explosives.

Extending out from the Tetsujin's endoskeleton are exo-skeletal structures that are the mounting points for both its exterior armor and the unique Nanotech Adapters that are littered across its body. Nanotech Adapters are hard points packed full of macro and micro sized Nanomachines that can almost instantly adapt and couple to any weapon they are equipped with no matter the original manufacturer, meaning that the Tetsujin is fully capable of stealing and using any weapon belonging to either OMNI or ZAFT.

The Tetsujin's Laminated Hybrid Hyper Alloy Composite Armor is essentially an extremely advanced version of 20th century Chobham tank armor. It consists of three primary materials, a core of a 10cm thick Beryllium Composite Cermet (Ceramic metal) material, which is then sandwiched between two 5cm thick plates of a Hybrid Titanium alloy, that make up the armor's exterior layers.

The Hybrid Hyper alloy is a Monocrystalline Titanium Carbon Nitride created via the use of Orb's zero gravity Nano-lathing technology. On its own this armor possesses mechanical strength and tensile strength several magnitudes superior to that of traditional steel and titanium. But it also possesses a freakish degree of elasticity while maintaining hardness greater than diamond and absurd levels of thermal and even electrical resistance superior to even that of Osmium. However to further increase the armor's durability and resistance to beam weaponry, in a similar manner to its endoskeleton, it has interspersed uniformly at the nanometer scale Monocrystalline Heterodiamond Nanorods, which are actually what give the Tetsujins' their unique bluish black insect like coloring. Heterodiamonds are a superhard material made up of Boron, Carbon, and Nitrogen, it possesses hardness comparable to diamond but with superior heat resistance close to cubic Boron Nitride and possesses a slightly iridescent bluish black color. Thanks to Orb's superior Nano-manufacturing methods however, it's artificial Monocrystalline Heterodiamonds are several magnitudes harder, denser, and more chemically and thermally stable than their 21st century counterparts. Quite simply this Hybrid alloy possesses physical properties that are comparable to the strongest PS-armor while being more durable against beam weaponry and not draining the Mobile Suit's power supply in order to use. Traditional armaments are rendered all but useless against the Tetsujin's Hyper Alloy armor with its elasticity giving it superior defense even against most Hyper-velocity weapons, currently the only known MS based HV-weapons that could pose a threat to the Tetsujin is the XGAT-217 Noctoraptor's Ballistra and the various Hyper-Accelerated Linear Cannons used by some of OMNI Enforcers newest mobile weapons.

Contained between the two plates of Hyper alloy is a layer of 10cm cubed tiles of a Beryllium Oxide Composite Cerametallic E-material that contains micro structures of super dense ceramic nitrides, borides, and carbides. This material is in some ways a hybrid of a shuttle craft's TPS(Thermal Protection System) and the Foam rubber polymers used in some tires due to it being porous and even somewhat pliable. Primarily this E-material is meant to function as part of the Tetsujin's defense against beam weapons due to it being able to resist thermal stresses in excess of 10,000 degrees Centigrade for very brief periods of time. Additionally it's pliable nature adds on to the armors defense against kinetic energy weapons helping to dampen and dissipate shock from them.

Coating the surface of the suits armor in an electrically sensitive layer of easily repaired artificial Chromataphors that give the suit the ability to change color at will, either in it's normal clear state where the armor beneath is visible. Or more obviously in a constantly changing camouflage pattern to better suit the environment it's in or even holding in a preset camouflage pattern to conserve power. This layer of Chromatic Surface Camouflage does not offer the same degree of invisibility as Mirage Colloid but is by far more energy efficient and depending on the environment also much more effective.

Lacing all throughout the Tetsujin's armor and it's entire body are Boron Nitride nano-tubes and nano-threads that serve two main purposes. The BN nano-threads are linked directly to the Tetsujins negative ion cooling lasers and primarily serve to dissipate heat all through out the suit. The nano-threads also are an integral part of the unit's armor for two reasons, first is the ability to regulate the temperature of all exposed surfaces on the suit to match it's environment. This effectively makes a Tetsujin virtually invisible to Infrared and thermal imaging cameras/sensors, additionally the nano-threads serve to increase the suits defensive power against high energy weapons that produce a great deal of heat. When struck by a beam weapon the armor will appear to briefly be covered in a spider web pattern of white hot "cracks" that quickly fade to cherry red and disappear. This occurs because of the nano-threads rapidly absorbing and dissipating the radiant heat energy, it also causes a Negative Ion-cooling laser near the point of impact to operate at near it's maximum output for a brief time to ensure the threads are very rapidly cooled.

In the wake of a hit from a beam weapon or most any damage from any weapon powerful enough to damage the suit one of the most important systems on the Tetsujin becomes apparent and that is it's Nano-machine repair system. The previously mentioned BN Nano-tubes contain a smart fluid similar to that contained in the Tetsujin's Endoskeleton but carries many additional elements and most especially nano-machines of various types. These Nano-machines are meant to do double duty on keeping the MS maintained keeping normal maintenance to a minimum as well as repairing relatively moderate battle damage. When a Tetsujin is damaged it will develop a noticeable quartz like 'scab' over the damaged area that aids in the repair speed, the Nano-machines use both Elements from the smart-fluid as well as the dust and gases from the surrounding environment to facilitate repairs and the construction of more worker nano-machines. Perhaps the most valuable purpose these Nano-machines serve however is their role in the Tetsujin's emergency fail-safe/self-destruct system, when a Tetsujin, or any part of it, is damaged to the point it can't be recovered or risks falling into enemy hands, the Nano-machines will begin to deconstruct the entire suit on the molecular level. Using the available materials to rapidly propagate themselves while breaking down the suit before in turn liquidating each other, within a time span of a bout 10 minutes this method of self destruction, while not as hazardous to the enemy, virtually ensures that absolutely no salvageable material remains of the suit. This is actually somewhat disturbing to enemy pilots in it's own right since the Tetsujin will turn into a grayish brittle corpse of it's former glory that will quite literally disintegrate with the slightest touch.

The Tetsujin possesses a highly redundant power supply system, as with most suits it has a replaceable energy battery in it's torso, this battery is a super efficient Metal Hydride based Nano-cell. The suit uses Titanium-Nitride super insulators and Niobium-Tin superconductors to get the maximum amount of power possible from the battery giving it close to 30 percent more power than the standard battery. The next source of internal power the Tetsujin has is five Super Solenoid(S2) engines that combine the roles of being batteries, high energy capacitors, power regulators, and surge protectors all into one. These S2 engines are located one apiece in each limb and the Tetsujin's torso, however the S2 engines greatest aspect is not initially obvious, each S2 engine is in fact an Electromagnetic accumulator and Microwave receiver. Fundamentally this means the Tetsujin can absorb minute amounts of ambient Electromagnetic energy to regenerate some of it's lost power, though this often spikes slightly during battle with the regular discharges of encapsulated energy weapons. The microwave receiver ability is the true master stroke though, as long as a Tetsujin is within about 35 Kilometers of any major vessel or occupied territory of Orb, the unit effectively has an unlimited operating time. That is so long as there is a proper microwave power transmitter present, in situations where the Tetsujin is operating in hostile territory, the units will carry with them a chemical reactor auxiliary power unit. The Chemical reactor does not put out enough power to function as a primary power source but has considerable applications as a mobile recharging station and are often hidden somewhere before an operation where they can easily be retrieved later. In the end the Tetsujin's operating time is vastly superior to most modern suits at a minimum multiple of nearly 5:1 as such the machine can not only outfight but outlast it's competitors by a tremendous margin.

The Tetsujin has a dazzling plethora of sensors as well, some are fairly standard and unsurprising while others are new innovations in applied technology but because of these sensors it was decided that the Tetsujin's overall armor design would be similar to the blended body stealth experiments giving the machine a very organic look and emphasizing it's slightly more insect like appearance. This resulted in a "Ninja-ish" appearance versus the Gundam's Samurai-esque designs, most especially in the head where the Tetsujin looks to be wearing a Ninja's face mask. Another distinct change to the head design was an outthrust visor over the main camera, this is purely functional to allow more room for sensors. Also instead of having the Gundam's V-fin the Tetsujin has a pair of very short but fat antennae that come out of the visor and face towards the suit's back while running nearly parallel to the top of the suits head so they aren't jutting out and avoid being possibly broken off. The 3D optical sensor array is essentially a large series of cameras both in the Tetsujin's face where it's eyes would be as well as various other backup and sensor cameras strategically strewn across it's body, meaning the suit literally has eyes in it's feet and in the back of it's head. These cameras consist of everything from the basic HD cameras to ultraviolet, infrared, thermal imaging, light enhancing, and the more exotic x-ray and microwave types as well. Most especially are the Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) Camera and the Schlieren camera, the MRI camera is quite accurately a camera that sees through walls and most any structural formation making it ideal for indirectly engaging enemies and finding hidden targets. The Schlieren camera is actually designed to pickup disturbances in the air caused by almost anything from either movement or particularly heat which actually leaves a detectable wake for a Schlieren camera to follow back to it's source. Another camera like sensor in the head is a sonar imager, which can best be described as an echolocation camera that creates long range snap shots of aquatic targets.

All in all, aside from the obvious cameras and laser designators the suit's head contains relatively few items in order to prevent a large scale sensor blackout should the head be destroyed, the other items the head does contain though is a scouting Periscope similar to the one in the Ferox. Alongside this is a Bi-Directional Quantum Bitstream, and AM/FM Long and Short Wave Radio Communications System that is most often used in conjunction with the Multi-band Sensor Cluster to hack and intercept enemy communications. The next items were a satellite uplink/hacking array and a Doppler radar unit that aided in determining target information as well as operation planning by knowing certain meteorological and geological factors. And of course there is the rather un-standard combined CIWS also located in the Tetsujin's head, the Hisame (hail) dual 25mm Hyper-Velocity Gun and Pulse Laser CIWS combines the two systems to find out which one will in practice function better overall. The 25mm HV-gun is essentially a miniaturized rapid fire version of the HALC that sheds gunpowder based CIWS for magnetically propelled ones, the pulse Lasers are fairly standard gamma based ones that don't so much as always destroy the warhead as completely fry the delicate electronics in a guided missile. Another application for the Tetsujins CIWS was in use during close combat to shoot out and fry an enemies sensors making them an easy kill, though some would say this is cowardly it hardly matters where in most fights the average Tetsujin pilot is outnumbered 3 or 4 or 5:1.

Integrated in to the Tetsujin's design is an Anti-Personnel Acoustic Defense Weapon or alternatively, a super loud sonic weapon, it's primary purpose is to neutralize enemy personnel via the use of super high and super low frequency sound waves with varying wave lengths. Against an unshielded organic target this means death via the rupturing of billions of micro capillaries throughout the human body specifically those in the vital organs. The resulting blood clots in the brain and heart potentially causing death via a stroke or heart attack or causing tremendous debilitating seizures, bleeding from all of the victims orifices and very likely drowning in one's own bodily fluids. However properly shielded people and MS pilots will only experience an incredibly high-pitched and ear-splittingly loud screaming noise, which can be potentially lethal due to it's debilitating effects. One part of this system integrated in to the Tetsujin's 'mouth' is a LRAD or Long Range Acoustic Device, which is essentially a very powerful speaker that can be used in a variety of ways, from use as a communications device beyond human hearing, to a highly focused sonar ping. Primarily though the LRAD sees two major uses a precision instead of area of effect version of its acoustic defense system and as a psychological weapon during combat, programmed into the OS of the suit is a variety of sounds used to demoralize enemy opposition. The audio tracks most regularly used are recordings of various animals, wolves howling, coyotes howling, lions and tigers roaring and growling, elephant bellows, hyena cackles, vulture cries, and various unearthly sounds that are meant to be intentionally 'spooky'. One by product of this system though was an improved audio receptor system with specialized sound dampeners and filtering systems to assist in target identification and locating sounds that were normally beyond the range of human hearing, effectively giving the suit super ears as well. As a result Tetsujin's were often given a variety of nicknames by earth based forces, Phantom, Wraith, Banshee, Skin Walker, and perhaps the most popular "Howlers", due to a mixture of the acoustic weapon scream and the regular howling sounds produced by the LRAD.

Inside the torso of the Tetsujin are more of the suits sensors and communication equipment, notably the vastly superior and more complex "Ansible" Tachyon Communications system and a host of new sensor systems. The Ansible system's primary improvement was the ability to actually encode the pulsed discharge of tachyons it self unlike OMNI and ZAFT Tachyon communications. ZAFT and OMNI's Tachyon burst suffer from two major flaws, the first and most serious being their security, any tachyon receiver unit capable of picking up the com pulse can easily intercept them so long as they are within range. The second flaw of most Tachyon communication systems is their effective range which is usually very short, limited to about 30-40 kilometers due to the Tachyons accelerating beyond the speed of a receiver unit's ability to pick up and decode coherently. Unlike with a radio wave which will degrade over distance a Tachyon burst accelerates and becomes more powerful making understanding the input signal near impossible for the receiver over a relatively short distance. Orb scientists essentially learned to manipulate the rate of acceleration of a Tachyon burst to the point that they could conceivably communicate in real time with satellites drifting in the solar systems ort cloud, though rumors suggest the system can do much more than this.

An active/passive sonar array is also inclusive to the torso for use in aquatic/liquid environments, though typically this system is only used in its passive mode due to its high sensitivity, rarely is needed to be used actively. Though in some respects overkill an additional set of MRI Cameras also exist in the torso beneath the armor along with the perhaps most advanced detection system ever come up with by humans but also somewhat fragile and that is "The Doctor". The Doctor is a Metaphase Superconducting Quantum Interference Devices (SQUID) Mass Energy Detector or MED, hence the name "The Doctor". This device can be very simply summed up as a hybrid of a traditional radar system and ZAFT's Lorenzini magnetic field sensors except pumped up on performance enhancing drugs. This device picks up the unique magnetic fields created by all matter in its environment out to a very significant range of up to 60 kilometers though this comes at the cost of significantly decreased accuracy in its readings. Essentially the systems cross references the magnetic fields it picks up with anything that has a similar or identical field via a complex extrapolation program, allowing the system to identify virtually anything in its effective range. The most important attribute of the system is that all modern stealth technologies including Mirage Colloid are useless against it. Though in the case of Mirage colloid the reason the system can pick up a unit using the synthetic particle stealth system is because of an unnatural Magnetic field free area that is moving. The system was designed so that it would also make pilots aware of any anomalous readings that the system couldn't rule out as ambient interference or background 'noise', this resulted in the ability to detect the high energy spikes associated with many modern weapons. Functionally this can give a pilot preemptive and to some appearances precognitive warnings of incoming enemy attacks, particularly those from light speed weapons, anti-matter weapons, and larger caliber magnetic acceleration weapons and energy cannons. However the most impressive ability the system possessed was the ability to actively identify living and non-living matter. Effectively making it a life signs detector and adding to its name the doctor; this obviously makes it ideal for more sublime tasks of search and rescue or rather search and destroy all living witnesses. But as impressive as this device and the MRI cameras are they both have one major flaw and that is that a powerful enough EM burst while they are in use can very easily fry their delicate components taking a great deal of time for the suit's Nano repair system to fix and recalibrate to the point of functionality.

The torso also contains a pair of Mizore(sleet) multi-launchers in its mid chest level with their muzzles ordinarily covered by thickened plates of armor, Magnetically based these devices can fire virtually anything. Primarily 'anything' consists of various types of grenade rounds, High Explosive, Anti-Personnel, Anti-Material, Incendiary, Smoke, and the Tetsujin pilot's favorite, the Flash Bang. The Flash bang is usually used more for distraction and creating additional chaos or simply disorienting enemies that closed to close for the pilot's liking, additionally these launchers can fire a variety of multi-colored magnesium based flares as well.

Like all modern suit's the Tetsujin's cockpit is based in its torso, not so traditionally for a MS the entire cockpit is an ejectable gyroscopically stabilized cylinder with its own power supply and maneuvering thrusters. And even more unusual is that the cockpit 'hatch' is located on the nape of the Tetsujin's neck between its backpack with the hatch being a plate of armor covering the cockpit pod. When the pilot wishes to board or dismount this plate of armor retracts completely allowing the pilot pod to be lifted into its embarkation position at which point the hatch on the pod itself opens allowing the pilot access to the cockpit. The Tetsujin's cockpit system is known as an Active Dynamic Pilot Interface or "Adept for short, there is room for the pilot in the main free floating command chair and a passenger in a sub chair behind it, which also has a spare oxygen helmet for reasons that will be explained. The cockpit itself is filled with a Non-Newtonian Smart Fluid that is perfectly clear but maintains its shape and deforms under almost no circumstances, creating what might at first appear to be a film stretched over the entrance to the cockpit. Even if one were to try it is impossible to remove the material from the cockpit, this smart fluid has many purposes. One is to make boarding the Tetsujin easier under gravity since a person can almost literally crawl through the S-Fluid no matter how the Tetsujin is oriented making seating oneself easier. Another purpose is that the material functions as a massive shock absorber for the pilot keeping them from being jarred around during combat and preventing unnecessary injuries. It also functions as a thermal and electrical insulator for the pilot providing an extra degree of protection against high-energy weapons that could ordinarily kill others. The cockpit possesses a 360 degree panoramic display that allows the pilot to look at anything around them with great ease providing superior situational awareness.

The command chair is an ergonomic design also made of very comfortable smart materials that automatically form themselves to best fit their pilot for the greatest possible comfort and safety. The control interfaces are also somewhat unique, while with most MS it's possible for just about anyone to hop in and pilot them even if not to an exemplary degree, the Tetsujin's controls are far more complex. Partly the complexity prevents just anyone from piloting a Tetsujin, instead requiring at least a month of training to properly grasp its control scheme and have a modicum of piloting ability. This is not to say the system is not user friendly or easy to adapt to so much as it provides greater control over the suits movements and makes the layout of OMNI and ZAFT suits seem retardedly simple. The unit has of course the usual foot petals but with toe hooks on them so that they may be both pushed down and pulled up as well as being pushed forward or backward or twisting side to side. It also sheds the more traditional joysticks for a pair of combined power glove/forearm armature/joy stick controller that offers a greater degree of control over the suit as well as a wider range of complex movements.  
One important feature of the suit is a multi-stage control limiter which keeps the suit from being too responsive for pilots who have yet to fully master the suits controls, starting at a Level 1 setting the suit is quite slow and sluggish, perfect for a beginner. At level 2 the motive abilities increase to the point that the Tetsujin responds about as fast as a worker MS but not much better than that, on level 3 responsive this becomes equivalent to a cannon fodder combat suit if a little better. When a pilot reaches the Level 4 capacity they are judged worthy to be a combat pilot by Orb standards since they will have reached a level skill equivalent to that of a ZAFT Red shirt or an OMNI Black shirt. However there are levels above number 4, Level 5 is for pilots who show an exemplary amount of piloting skill, above that is Level 6 a rating given to only the most skilled/exceptional or simply abnormal pilots. Finally there is a level 7, the third highest possible responsiveness, unfortunately normal humans, be them naturals, or coordinators simply do not have the mental or physical capabilities to control the Tetsujin at this level of operation. The exception to this does exist in the forms of three people, the first two being Liene Van Dalgyon and Andrew Victor Payne both of whom have a tremendous number of Cybernetic implants that allow them to directly control the MS by linking their central nervous system to a suit's M.O.S. The third is of course Kira Yamato, though by most standards his abilities and sheer potential can hardly be considered normal but at Level 8 even an Ultimate Coordinator can't control a Tetsujin via any means but cybernetics. Level 8 is the highest operational level that a human can still control the suit and thus far only one Andrew "Vicious" Payne seems to possess the sheer ability to do this. The Final operational Level that delivers the absolute maximum output of the suit's abilities is Level 9, at this stage however the only thing that possesses the capacity to control a Tetsujin is an extremely advanced Quantum A.I. with the power to actually bring out the suit's maximum nightmarish potential. During the first battle of Orb one serious factor in Orb's casualties was the great inexperience of most of its pilots with their new suits, admittedly they adapted to the suits remarkably quickly when the chips were down. However over 60% percent of Orb pilots had only reached operational Level 3 with their suits during the first War accounting for part of the initial severe losses despite superior training, the other 40% were all rated at Level 4 or above thankfully and surprisingly.

Another powerful SQUID (Superconducting Quantum Interference Device) meant to monitor the pilot's brain activity is built into the pilot's helmet, as well as hundreds of micro-maser Neuro-manipulators. The Purpose of the SQUID and Neuro-manipulators is to transmit tactile sensory information acquired from the Tetsujin's own onboard computer directly to the pilot's brain allowing the pilot to 'feel' what the suit feels. This was accomplished by adding hundreds of high-sensitivity pressure and stress sensors to the Tetsujin's feet, superstructure, and joints along with interfacing the pilot's own sense of balance with the Tetsujin's own gyroscopic stabilization system. In theory this gives the pilot a near supernatural degree of flawless control over the suit since they can now experience the environment they are fighting in and how it's affecting their frame much more clearly. In practice though the system had to be scaled back to a much less obtrusive level since most pilots, natural or coordinator, couldn't easily cope with it, however a few things of note did come out of this in that even in a restricted mode the system still helps to increase the pilot's ability to get the best use out of their personal suit. Another application for the device is to use it as part of the cockpit's security system so as to check and see if it's pilot's brain matches with its authorized pilot and if not then the Micro masers will cook the intruders brain until they are either in capacitated or dead. Another unique quirk of this system was a tendency for any nervous habit's a pilot may have or empathic nerve responses and muscle memory to be transmitted to the suits motive systems, resulting in Tetsujins performing extremely human actions such as finger and toe tapping out of the blue, or idly shifting their weight from one foot to another, wind milling their arms to keep their balance, recoiling or jumping in surprise, and sometimes even going through the motions of yawning.

Part of the suit's targeting systems and camera control system are a series of infrared eye movement detectors which are also built in the helmet, these devices assist in the process of target acquirement by allowing the pilot to simply look at and focus on what he wants to shoot while leaving the rest up to the suits FCS. In terms of increased accuracy this allows the pilot to very easily pick off the limbs and extremities of enemy suits as well as allowing are far greater ability to track and kill moving targets. The system also functions in part with the Hisame CIWS allowing the pilot to pick and choose what incoming fire they want to hit or to target surface threats in an antipersonnel role. Another thing of note is that for increased psychological effect a Tetsujin's 'eyes' actually mimic's it's pilot's, appearing to widen in surprise, glare in aggression, or focus/watch something specifically by appearing to swivel and look at it, essentially "watching out of the corner of its eyes".

One feature of the cockpit system is that the pilot's suit has multiple medical properties aside from just monitoring basic bodily functions such as heart rate, breathing, blood pressure, stress levels, and body temperature. It also has the ability to intravenously deliver drugs and if necessary resuscitate a pilot who has gone into cardiac arrest or suffered severe injury even going as far as full life support and injecting bio foams into the pilot's body to stop internal bleeding. Some of the drugs used are fairly standard in medical practices but are surprising nonetheless, during combat or regular operations the suit may decide to introduce a drug into the system to improve the pilot's performance. From simple adrenalin and endorphins to a variety of vitamins and minerals that also increase the health of the pilot as well as increasing their overall ability to function but on the dark side the suit also contains several synthetic drugs that heighten a pilot's emotional threshold and unnaturally increase their focus. This causes some pilots to for a period of time become near emotionless killing machines that operate to the best of their ability, thankfully this drug is relatively harm less with no lingering effects. Other agents also present are anesthetics, anti-depressants, and even powerful sleeping agents designed to force a pilot into dreamless REM sleep to enable them to more easily rest and recover during missions. On a side note it is also possible for the system to force the pilot into an artificial coma if their life is in danger so as to minimize the consumption of resources by lowering the amount of bodily activity.

When the cockpit pod is ejected it uses a magnetic pulse to hurl it out of the suit before firing its own engines to propel it away from danger; on the earth the pod can sustain flight for a little over 80 kilometers before running out of power and deploying parachutes to guide it to the ground. In space the pods parachutes function as a cross between solar sails and power collectors allowing the pod to propel itself over much greater distances for longer periods of time if necessity demands. For added protection the cockpit pods eject a great deal of Anti-beam gas during their initial launch and through part of their flight incase an enemy is cowardly enough to try and destroy the ejection pod.

The suit's backpack seems fairly normal at first glance but does have several unique design traits, the first being that it's two primary plasma rockets are in actuality a plasma based pulse jet engine that works virtually anywhere even under water while still providing tremendous thrust. While most Suits Plasma thrusters only have an output of around 25,000 kg the Tetsujin's engines can pump out a whopping 65,000 kg while still being almost twice as energy efficient as ZAFT and OMNI designs. The nozzles of these two engines appear to stick a fair distance out of the back pack; one reason for this is the high amount of thermal energy created by the engines. But the second and more important reason is that both main engine nozzles is a 3-d vector thrusting assembly allowing the suit far greater mobility by being able to direct its thrust in more directions over a wider cone. On either side of the back pack behind the shoulders are a pair of weapon storage locks for optional/heavy weapons that also double as docking units for the Tetsujin's Tengu Artificially Intelligent Reconnaissance & Attack Drone (AIRAD) support unit. On top of the back pack is a somewhat large movable booster pod that contains a large number of apogee verniers that greatly increase the Tetsujin's mobility both in space and on earth. However the main component of this movable booster pod is a Plasma Pulse Detonation Engine, not to be confused with the Shadowfax's Positron Pulse Detonation Engine. This Plasma based PDE started its life as an experimental plasma beam weapon but upon its first test propelled itself and its test rig nearly 16 meters into solid granite, too say the least Orb scientist realized they might be onto something quite different than they intended. The plasma PDE is also the progenitor of the Tetsujins' Plasma Pulse Jet engines, however while they provide a great deal of thrust very efficiently the PDE does not. It for lack of a better term is a highly inefficient gas hog that produces an explosive amount of thrust for only brief periods of time, its primary use for the Tetsujin is simply to be a Nitro Booster of sorts when it absolutely positively must get somewhere as fast as possible. Often times this Plasma PDE sees its main use in either emergencies or ambushes and very rarely charges, one historic incident of this was when a standard Tetsujin used its PDE to body check one of the X-GAT-400 series Gundams through several skyscrapers and into a cliff face. The Tetsujin's pilot survived the encounter but their suit didn't, though apparently some serious structural damage had been done to the 400 series in question.

The Tetsujins' arms and shoulders also contain their own unique sets of weapons and sensors, inside the shoulder armor are powerful acoustic sensors for picking up audio outside the suit and function as Atmospheric Disturbance Motion Detectors. The acoustic receivers are equipped with buffers to blot out loud background noises and instead focus on picking up sounds well beyond the range of human hearing and deciphering what they are, from heart beats to Mobile Suits walking through a rain storm. The ADMD essentially is a very sensitive vibration sensor that picks up even some of the most minor vibrations transmitted through the air to extrapolate what an object is and if it's moving to pinpoint its location via sound/vibration. Much like the Doctor and the MRI cameras this device also runs the risk of failing if it is exposed to too loud a noise at too close a range without warning or time to activate its sonic buffers properly. Located inside the Tetsujin's forearms under its wrists are a pair of magnetically launched Kusari Multi-Purpose Grapple Anchors, each anchor consists of an Anti-PS Osmium and Titanium carbide based ultra-high-power Electromagnet. The anchors are shaped roughly like an elongated tetrahedron for piercing armor; the anchor has 3 magnetically actuated claws that spring out to provide additional purchase on some objects on command, especially if the surface is non-ferrous. The cables that attach them to the suit are electrically conductive Ultra-high molecular weight Mono-molecular Titanium-Carbon elastic Polymers. This material can be made extremely thin and strong and thanks to its bungee cord elasticity it will not break if suddenly put under immense stress; instead it will help to absorb the strain on the cable. The grapple anchors purpose is primarily to be a retrieval tool for metallic and non-metallic objects or simply attach to any surface as an anchor point when necessity demands, though obviously depending on what you're trying to fire it at will dictate whether or not you will have the Anti-PS properties active. Alternatively they also function as weapons in two ways one is to obviously shoot them into and through an enemy unit at a vital spot, two is to grapple an opponent to jerk them into the line of fire or simply bring them close enough to tear apart. Though for airborne targets there is always the option of smashing ones enemy into the ground or one of their allies. Because of the electrically conductive nature of the cables it is also possible for the Tetsujin to disable an opponent via a small high-amperage burst of electricity or complete fry an enemy via a sustained discharge.

Much like any other part of its body the Tetsujin's legs contain their own host of sensors and weapons, the rather obvious sensors being the Ground Sonar and Audio Receivers in its feet and lower legs meant to detect and track subterranean disturbances as well as listen in on underground noises. Built into each of the Tetsujin's legs are Repulsor drives that use an artificially created Mono-Polar Electromagnet to suspend the Tetsujin over any surface. By allowing the suit to easily hover over many types of terrain that may not be easily navigable under normal circumstances this drastically increases the suit's flexibility to operate in swampy, sandy, and boggy environments. Rather obviously it also allows the suit to hover over water with an absolute minimum expenditure of power, not so obvious is the massive repulsive force the drives can generate in a split second. With a sudden burst of power the repulsor drives can generate the repulsive energy equivalent of twenty metric tons of TNT, put simply it can send the Tetsujin hurling in any direction like a marble out of a sling shot. Of course doing this is potentially hazardous to the pilot and their suit as such burst output is limited to more tolerable levels to also preserve the repulsor drives. Much like the Tetsujin's main Hybrid Plasma Thrusters these drives can be used in virtually any environment due to their operating principles, according to M-theory gravity and space itself more or less exists as a plane. The magnetic mono-poles of the repulsor drives creates infinitesimal hiccups in the Earth's gravity field and the reactive energy created as a result can be used to allow the suit to hover for extended periods of time at a minimal expenditure of power. Or they can use a tremendous amount of power to create a powerful reactive burst that can not only provide massive thrust but also be used offensively. If an enemy MS were to be under or in front of the bottom of the Tetsujin's feet when the repulsors fired at high output the result would be as though the enemy machine had been hit by a half a kiloton of steel traveling at Mach 1.

Armaments inclusive to the lower torso itself are a pair of Reiken (Spirit blade) Hyper Beam Tsurugis mounted on the hip armor and a pair of Juuki (small arms) Dual mode beam/linear pistols stored inside the hip armor. The Juuki is functionally a backup weapon of last resort like most sidearms but it also fulfills a role as an anti-light armor weapon having just enough punch for use against smaller and weaker targets such as tanks, helicopters, and other light vehicles. That is not to say it isn't capable of destroying a MS but sacrifices range and power for its size and versatility, the 25mm beam gun is based in part of the Augury Kurotenchi pack's carbine. However the Juuki's particle output is much smaller due to its size, in rapid fire mode particle output is just high enough to successfully penetrate ordinary MS armor. In Magnum mode output is high enough that the particle beam can penetrate most PS-armor with ease at the cost of being able to fire only one shot every 2 seconds. Above the barrel for the beam gun is a 75mm linear gun that fires 65mm nano-engineered Thermite based plasma incendiary rounds, these rounds are in their own way more lethal than the beam gun due to the sheer amount of collateral damage they cause upon impact. The shell is ignited by the electromagnetic energy created when firing the gun, causing it to burn for three seconds at temperatures exceeding 50,000 degrees Fahrenheit depending on the medium it is traveling through. Upon impact the round squashes over the impact site vaporizing armor and causing tremendous thermal damage over an area of 5 meters, the round can easily destroy conventional weapons and defenses as well as melting holes through anti-beam coated shields. The round is also effective against PS-armor to a slightly lesser degree but can still compromise it severely, on the down side the gun only has 30 rounds of ammo in 10 round magazines and its effective range is limited to less than 600 meters.

The Reiken Hyper Beam Tsurugis are improved versions of existing beam saber technology, while most beam sabers function by holding charged particles in a semi-unstable electromagnetic containment field to form a 'blade', the Reiken do something significantly different. Because of the inherent instability of an ordinary beam sabers containment field they waste a great deal of power just creating more charged particles as some escape the field. The upside of this is that beam sabers create a great deal of collateral thermal damage to a target but still this is a hefty drain on a mobile suit's power reserves. Hyper beam saber technology uses two containment fields to squeeze the charged particles into a very tightly condensed 'blade' in order to prevent the minimum loss of charged particles. Once this is done the charged particles try to escape from between the two fields creating a beam blade in the shape of a Tsurugi or Chinese straight sword, ordinarily this would eject the particles away from the containment field making the sword less efficient than an ordinary beam saber. To prevent this a third unstable containment field is used to pull the charged particles back down towards the base of the particle emitter and cycle them back through the other two fields. This causes two very important things two happen to make a hyper Beam Tsurugi a far better weapon, the first is that this cycling of charged particles creates what amounts to a pair of counter rotating energy saws on the opposing edges of the sword. This gives the Reiken tremendous cutting power in comparison to an ordinary beam saber since every charged particle creating the blade is oscillating at a speed of roughly 7,483,250 times a second. The Reiken can even cut through anti-beam coated shields if it remains in contact with one for a period of time longer than a few seconds, making the Tetsujin a nightmare in close combat. The second and perhaps more dangerous result of the design is what happens at the tip of the sword, as the charged particles oscillate Leptons are ejected violently from the swords tip creating an invisible 3 meter extension to the swords blade. Because of this Tetsujin pilots have the sword out lined on their HUDs to show the swords true length so as not to accidentally cut something they didn't want to while using the sword. However the true marvel that these ejected Leptons creates is the ability to pierce virtually any defense with the ease of a hot needle through butter, excluding of course Orb's own H-PS technology. As an example, while a Tetsujin slashing at an Anti-beam coated shield will cause some damage it won't immediately cut through the shield however if the Tetsujin were to stab their Hyper beam tsurugi straight into the shield it would punch through it like it wasn't even there thanks to the Leptons being ejected from the tip. The final upside of the Reiken is that it's unique properties often cause it to be able to over load the containment fields of enemy beam sabers causing them to fail at the worst of times leaving an enemy suit wide open for a fatal blow. The down side to the Reiken's design is that it does not cause near as much collateral thermal damage as a regular beam saber but does gain points for causing drastically increased electrical damage. Also because of the number of containment fields the Reiken has it generates tidal forces similar to a gyroscope making it more difficult to wield than a regular beam saber. This flaw of course is off set completely thanks to the Tetsujin's "muscle power" and it also in the end benefit's the weapon by giving the saber what amounts to virtual mass. A regular beam saber has no mass meaning there is little to no kinetic energy behind a beam saber slash, in the Reiken's case the tidal forces it creates gives it greater mass energy potential that translates into powerful kinetic strikes. In Layman's terms it could be said that fighting a Tetsujin with a beam saber is like using a fiberglass baseball bat to fight a Major League Baseball player who has a steel bat. The only other possible flaw of the sword is that it can only cut with the edges of the sword while the flat of its blades can only deflect beam energy or shock a target but not actually cut it unlike a beam saber which can cut in any direction. The coup de grace is that all of the swords improvements come at only a doubling in its energy cost which to a Tetsujin is no real problem.

To top it all off all off, the Tetsujin's hardware is run and managed by an advanced decentralized bio-neural quantum computing system that is networked to thousands of isolated biologically-based electrochemical neural networks using minute amounts of human cortex tissue grafted to boron coated carbon wafer femto-chip processors. Because the femto-chips are spread throughout its body they are all connected to one another via a nervous-system-like Mono-molecular optical computing network. This allows all of the widely dispersed sensor systems and computing unit's to stay interconnected and relay commands from the cockpit to the various parts of the Tetsujin's body. Thus automatically bypassing damaged systems and rerouting to auxiliary systems when needed making it even harder to cause crippling amounts of damage to the Tetsujin even when it is full of more holes than a worm infested appl. Because of this each Tetsujin is effectively a massively oversized articulated walking Super computer of astronomical potency far beyond the suit's own needs. Most of the Tetsujin's systems are managed by the suits AICA (Artificially Intelligent Combat Assistant) the AICA primarily serves as a pilot aid verbally interacting with the suits pilot and providing them with important information. An AICA can overtime gain a personality of sorts that reflects its pilot's own unique proclivities while counterbalancing their flaws, by sometimes suggesting alternate courses of action. A thing of note is that an AICA's voice is a gender reversed version of their pilot's essentially speaking to their pilot in an opposite sex version of the pilot's own voice, though few seem to notice this. The AICA's also have a limited ability to remotely control their own Tetsujin's, this allows a pilot to 'call' their suit to them in an emergency or remotely control it externally by verbally communicating with the AICA either over open air or over a comlink.

The Tetsujin in some ways could be considered the ultimate MS of its type when it was designed but it was not without some flaws, some these were entirely unexpected others were simply a question of not fully exploring the possible combat abilities of the suit.

D/N: Overall the Tetsujin has a body that looks like a cross between the Type J-9 Griffon from Patlabor and the MMF-JG73L Turn Delta from the Gundam Seed Astray side stories. Its head looks more like the RX-121-1 Gundam TR-1 Hazel Custom with the Sniper Unit equipment from the UC-verse side story Advance of Zeta: Flag of the Titans Photonovel. Another item it takes from that side story is the back pack of the RX-121 Gundam TR-1 Hazel, particularly the more ordinary one equipped with the small movable booster pod to it. Aside from the obvious changes to leg design however the body is almost universally colored a glossy blue-ish black with the antennae on its head being silver and it's optics being light blue. The armor is also almost seamless and for the most part perfectly smooth with no sudden lumps or bumps giving it a naturally alien organic flow to the armor design and also increasing its psychological demoralizing affect. The Hyper beam Tsurugi's look like the ORB-01 Akatsuki's dual beam sabers but with blue beam blades and the emitters themselves being the same color as the rest of the Tetsujin

Misc: The most significant drain on its power from its motive systems is actually it's frictionless joints but still this is much lower than that of any standard MS in Earth's gravity. In space however, the lack of gravity only causes the Tetsujin's baseline performance to go up significantly due to there being even less power required to run it's motive systems.

Well, it's been a good run folks. I've got other Gundam stories planned, but for those of you who need something to tide over (not that you can't find any other story here) I've got a quest thread on SpaceBattles' sub-forum 'A BROB is for you!' under the title of 'A Displaced Neo-Zeon Pilot Is You!'

Check it out if you're interested.

See ya.


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